WEBVTT 00:00:00.020 --> 00:00:04.780 There is something about this season that brings a strange mixture of emotions to the surface. 00:00:05.480 --> 00:00:09.380 The lights go up, the music plays, the world seems to sparkle, 00:00:10.180 --> 00:00:13.680 but not all the feelings that rise to the surface are sparkling ones. 00:00:14.520 --> 00:00:18.600 December has a way of putting joy and sorrow right next to each other on the table. 00:00:19.440 --> 00:00:23.040 And maybe that's part of what makes Advent such a sacred time. 00:00:23.820 --> 00:00:26.020 It's honest. It refuses to pretend. 00:00:27.200 --> 00:00:31.020 You see, we celebrate the birth of Jesus with beauty and wonder. 00:00:31.620 --> 00:00:34.360 We celebrate His arrival, His coming near. 00:00:34.860 --> 00:00:40.140 But the longer I walk with the Lord, the more I realize that in order to fully understand 00:00:40.480 --> 00:00:44.000 the manger, we also have to understand the mission. 00:00:44.900 --> 00:00:49.820 And Isaiah tells us the mission long before Bethlehem ever glowed with starlight. 00:00:50.360 --> 00:00:55.820 Long before Jesus ever cried as an infant, Isaiah told us He would cry as a man. 00:00:56.620 --> 00:01:04.239 Advent is joyful, yes, but Advent is also weighty. Advent reminds us that the child who came into the 00:01:04.440 --> 00:01:11.600 world came for a purpose, and that purpose would cost him everything. So today we're slowing down 00:01:11.630 --> 00:01:17.600 with one of the most profound verses in Scripture, a verse that is easy to quote, easy to admire, 00:01:18.500 --> 00:01:22.639 but difficult to fully absorb. Isaiah 53.3 00:01:23.240 --> 00:01:28.560 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. 00:01:29.740 --> 00:01:31.780 A single scarlet leaf on snow. 00:01:32.620 --> 00:01:33.840 That's how I picture this verse. 00:01:34.240 --> 00:01:37.040 Beauty and bleakness, color and cold. 00:01:38.120 --> 00:01:40.780 A story of suffering and a story of redemption. 00:01:41.820 --> 00:01:43.960 This is the Messiah Isaiah saw. 00:01:44.720 --> 00:01:46.840 This is the Savior who came to us. 00:01:47.560 --> 00:01:51.820 This is Jesus, the man of sorrows, who became our joy. 00:01:52.800 --> 00:01:55.180 And this is Verses We Missed. 00:02:03.100 --> 00:02:09.660 Welcome. Welcome to Verses We Missed. I'm your host, Steve Webb, your OG Godcaster. 00:02:10.720 --> 00:02:16.460 Every week, we explore the quieter parts of Scripture, the verses we tend to skip past or read too quickly, 00:02:17.160 --> 00:02:22.320 or the ones that carry entire worlds inside just a handful of words. 00:02:23.560 --> 00:02:26.300 This is your midweek breath of Scripture and Grace. 00:02:27.140 --> 00:02:29.520 And today, as we celebrate this Advent season, 00:02:30.130 --> 00:02:33.760 we turn not just to a Christmas verse, but to a Christmas truth, 00:02:34.660 --> 00:02:36.640 one that runs underneath the whole story, 00:02:37.420 --> 00:02:40.220 like a scarlet thread woven through every page. 00:02:41.240 --> 00:02:44.400 Isaiah 53 tells us who Jesus would grow to be, 00:02:45.160 --> 00:02:48.840 but it also tells us what kind of God he has always been. 00:02:51.640 --> 00:02:55.840 Isaiah wrote these words about 700 years before the birth of Christ, 00:02:56.540 --> 00:03:01.900 seven centuries before Bethlehem, seven centuries before shepherds heard angels, 00:03:02.480 --> 00:03:06.940 or a star shone over a stable, or Mary held the Savior in her arms. 00:03:08.040 --> 00:03:09.560 700 years. 00:03:10.520 --> 00:03:14.600 And yet Isaiah describes Jesus in her life as clearly as the Gospels do. 00:03:15.160 --> 00:03:21.140 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. 00:03:22.500 --> 00:03:25.260 That doesn't sound like the opening line of a Christmas card. 00:03:25.860 --> 00:03:29.280 It doesn't sound like the way we like to picture the baby in the manger. 00:03:30.260 --> 00:03:32.560 But Isaiah isn't trying to discourage us. 00:03:33.100 --> 00:03:34.000 He's preparing us. 00:03:34.440 --> 00:03:40.200 because sometimes the most hopeful thing God ever did was step into our suffering. 00:03:41.580 --> 00:03:46.460 God wanted us to know through the prophet Isaiah that the coming Messiah would not be distant, 00:03:47.100 --> 00:03:54.080 not detached, not insulated from the world he came to save. He would feel. He would hurt. 00:03:54.940 --> 00:04:02.380 He would experience sorrow, not occasionally, but constantly. He would be acquainted with grief, 00:04:02.820 --> 00:04:08.460 the way a close friend knows another. This is the same Jesus who came in the manger. 00:04:09.660 --> 00:04:13.000 Let's linger with that phrase for a moment, a man of sorrows. 00:04:14.300 --> 00:04:21.840 Not a man who occasionally experienced sorrow. Not a man who avoided sorrow. A man familiar with 00:04:21.970 --> 00:04:28.679 sorrow, shaped by sorrow, intimate with sorrow. If the scarlet thread of redemption runs through 00:04:28.700 --> 00:04:33.220 the scriptures, then the scarlet thread of suffering runs through the life of Jesus. 00:04:34.830 --> 00:04:43.180 Think about his life. He was born into poverty. He grew up under oppression. He watched injustice 00:04:43.350 --> 00:04:52.740 his whole life. He knew loneliness, exhaustion, hunger, betrayal. Before he ever carried a cross, 00:04:53.100 --> 00:04:59.360 he carried grief. Before he ever wore a crown of thorns, he wore the heaviness of rejection. 00:05:00.440 --> 00:05:06.700 Before his hands were pierced, his heart was. We often think of Jesus' suffering as something 00:05:06.880 --> 00:05:14.800 that happened near the end of his early life. Isaiah says, no, he lived it. From birth to death, 00:05:15.160 --> 00:05:22.760 he walked in a world that needed him and yet did not want him. And here's the miracle. He chose 00:05:23.800 --> 00:05:29.540 He willingly stepped into a world that would misunderstand Him, dismiss Him, and ultimately 00:05:30.160 --> 00:05:35.540 reject Him. He came because sorrow was the soil where redemption would grow. 00:05:36.720 --> 00:05:43.180 Advent is a season of waiting, of hoping, of longing. But it is also a season of remembering. 00:05:44.020 --> 00:05:50.720 We remember that Jesus did not just arrive. He entered into something. He entered into 00:05:50.780 --> 00:05:58.260 our humanity. He entered into our grief. He entered into our darkness to bring light. 00:05:59.800 --> 00:06:06.940 Too many people feel pressure to look joyful during the Christmas season. But Isaiah 53.3 tells us that 00:06:07.220 --> 00:06:13.380 God is not intimidated by your sadness. He is not uncomfortable with your sorrow. He does not 00:06:13.620 --> 00:06:20.140 require you to be cheerful in order to draw near to you. Because the Messiah himself was a man who 00:06:20.180 --> 00:06:28.160 knew sorrow deeply. And that is the hope of Advent. The hope is not that Jesus came to erase sorrow 00:06:28.600 --> 00:06:36.480 instantly. The hope is that Jesus came to carry it. He came to enter it. He came to redeem it. 00:06:37.500 --> 00:06:43.320 Joy is not the absence of sorrow. Joy is the presence of Jesus in the middle of it. 00:06:44.360 --> 00:06:48.680 Let's look again at Isaiah's words. He was despised and rejected by men. 00:06:49.460 --> 00:06:55.700 Why? Not because he did anything wrong. Not because he failed. Not because he was weak. 00:06:56.280 --> 00:07:02.880 He was rejected because he was righteous in a world that loved darkness. He was despised 00:07:03.320 --> 00:07:09.620 because he dared to bring healing where people clung to their wounds. He was dismissed because 00:07:09.670 --> 00:07:16.340 his kingdom did not look like theirs. And then Isaiah says, a man of sorrows and acquainted with 00:07:16.360 --> 00:07:24.460 grief. Those words describe Jesus' experience, but they also describe his heart. He knows what 00:07:24.460 --> 00:07:31.880 it feels like to be overlooked. He knows what it feels like to be misunderstood. He knows what it 00:07:32.000 --> 00:07:38.720 feels like to lose someone. He knows what it feels like when the world does not match the hopes you 00:07:38.820 --> 00:07:46.220 carried into it. Christmas is not the story of God arriving into a perfect world. It is the story of 00:07:46.380 --> 00:07:52.240 God arriving into a broken one. The light shines brightest in the dark. Let me ask you something. 00:07:53.020 --> 00:07:59.160 Is there some place in your life that sorrow still lingers? Where grief still echoes? Where 00:07:59.460 --> 00:08:07.780 rejection still stings? Where do you feel unseen? Where do you feel misunderstood? Where do you feel 00:08:08.020 --> 00:08:15.300 alone. Isaiah 53.3 tells you something that no other religion in the world can say with honesty. 00:08:16.180 --> 00:08:24.140 Your God understands you, not from a distance, but from experience. He is not the God who avoids 00:08:24.440 --> 00:08:31.100 sorrow. He is the God who walks into it. He is not the God who says, cheer up. He is the God who 00:08:31.200 --> 00:08:39.840 says, I've been there. But he is not only the man of sorrows. He is the giver of joy. The joy that 00:08:39.900 --> 00:08:46.700 does not deny pain, but transforms it. The joy that is not shallow, but deep. The joy that is 00:08:46.860 --> 00:08:54.400 not temporary, but eternal. This is why we celebrate Advent. This is why we kneel at the manger. 00:08:55.380 --> 00:09:00.620 This is why the scarlet thread runs from Isaiah to Bethlehem to Calvary to the empty tomb. 00:09:01.400 --> 00:09:03.800 The man of sorrows became our joy. 00:09:05.700 --> 00:09:06.140 Let's pray. 00:09:07.040 --> 00:09:12.320 Father, thank you that you sent us a Savior who is not distant from our pain, but familiar with it. 00:09:13.160 --> 00:09:21.080 Thank you that Jesus experienced sorrow, not so we would feel guilty for ours, but so that we would never face it alone. 00:09:22.600 --> 00:09:29.800 Thank you that he carried grief, rejection, loneliness, and heartbreak, so he could lift our burdens and redeem our wounds. 00:09:30.880 --> 00:09:33.940 Help us, Lord, to see the hope inside this verse. 00:09:35.070 --> 00:09:40.960 Help us to remember that joy is possible not because sorrow disappears, but because you entered it. 00:09:41.920 --> 00:09:45.700 In this Advent season, give us hearts that rest in your compassion 00:09:46.460 --> 00:09:49.560 and eyes that see your presence even in difficult places. 00:09:50.740 --> 00:09:54.580 We thank you for Jesus, the man of sorrows who became our joy. 00:09:55.280 --> 00:09:58.020 And it's in his name we pray. Amen. 00:10:01.900 --> 00:10:04.180 Beloved, if this episode spoke to your heart today, 00:10:04.320 --> 00:10:06.520 would you consider returning some of that value? 00:10:07.180 --> 00:10:07.480 Time. 00:10:07.980 --> 00:10:09.100 Tell someone about the show. 00:10:09.920 --> 00:10:10.240 Talent. 00:10:11.000 --> 00:10:13.940 If you create art, music, or anything beautiful, 00:10:14.440 --> 00:10:15.680 I'd love to feature it. 00:10:16.260 --> 00:10:16.560 Treasure. 00:10:17.320 --> 00:10:19.380 You can stream sats or support the show 00:10:19.560 --> 00:10:22.140 at lifespringmedia.com support. 00:10:23.340 --> 00:10:25.540 This is a weekly show released every Tuesday 00:10:25.680 --> 00:10:27.120 at 10 p.m. Pacific Time, 00:10:27.240 --> 00:10:31.620 So it's waiting for you Wednesday morning, your midweek breath of scripture and grace. 00:10:32.600 --> 00:10:37.440 As you go, may you remember that the man of sorrows walks with you if you know him as your Savior. 00:10:38.040 --> 00:10:40.940 If you don't know him, I would be happy to talk with you about him. 00:10:41.640 --> 00:10:43.960 Email me at steve at lifespringmedia.com. 00:10:45.100 --> 00:10:50.900 May his presence turn your sorrow into strength, and may the hope of Advent fill you with peace and joy. 00:10:51.960 --> 00:10:53.060 May God bless you richly. 00:10:53.560 --> 00:10:54.700 My name is Steve Webb. 00:10:55.960 --> 00:10:56.080 Bye.