Ephesus Baptist Church
Service 3-21-2021 AM
      • Bible Trivia
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  • Lord I Lift Your Name On High

      • Psalm 22:1–18ESV

      • John 19:14–24ESV

  • Praise Him! Praise Him!
  • Because He Lives

  • Call to Worship

    Lord, I Lift Your Name on High

    Welcome

    Good morning Ephesus Family! How are you? What a beautiful day to be gathering together in the house of our Lord with all of God’s people! Are you excited that you are able to come gather together, freely, without oppression, to worship our Risen Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ! I sure am!
    Let us thank God for allowing us the opportunity to gather in His presence and let us ask Him to help us come to worship prayed up, read up, filled up and ready to worship Him in Spirit and Truth.
    Let us also ask Him today to help us prepare our hearts to celebrate the great redemption He provided for us over 2000 years ago as we begin to approach the Easter Holiday.
    If you are visiting with us today either in person or in your pajamas watching our LiveStream, I want you to know that I am so glad you are here with us today.
    I believe there are many good churches in this world, we would hope that you would come to believe that Ephesus Baptist Church numbers among those who hold fast to our faith in Jesus Christ through the powerful testimony of the Bible!

    Announcements

    Family Movie Night - March 26th @7PM - The Jesus Film
    Easter Egg Hunt - April, 3rd @11AM
    Easter Worship Schedule
    Sunrise Service - 8:30AM
    Worship Service - 10:00AM

    Old Testament Scripture Reading

    Mr. Stephen Nobles
    Psalm 22:1–18 ESV
    1 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning? 2 O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer, and by night, but I find no rest. 3 Yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel. 4 In you our fathers trusted; they trusted, and you delivered them. 5 To you they cried and were rescued; in you they trusted and were not put to shame. 6 But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by mankind and despised by the people. 7 All who see me mock me; they make mouths at me; they wag their heads; 8 “He trusts in the Lord; let him deliver him; let him rescue him, for he delights in him!” 9 Yet you are he who took me from the womb; you made me trust you at my mother’s breasts. 10 On you was I cast from my birth, and from my mother’s womb you have been my God. 11 Be not far from me, for trouble is near, and there is none to help. 12 Many bulls encompass me; strong bulls of Bashan surround me; 13 they open wide their mouths at me, like a ravening and roaring lion. 14 I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; it is melted within my breast; 15 my strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to my jaws; you lay me in the dust of death. 16 For dogs encompass me; a company of evildoers encircles me; they have pierced my hands and feet— 17 I can count all my bones— they stare and gloat over me; 18 they divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.

    New Testament Scripture Reading

    Pastor Wayne
    John 19:14–24 ESV
    14 Now it was the day of Preparation of the Passover. It was about the sixth hour. He said to the Jews, “Behold your King!” 15 They cried out, “Away with him, away with him, crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Shall I crucify your King?” The chief priests answered, “We have no king but Caesar.” 16 So he delivered him over to them to be crucified. So they took Jesus, 17 and he went out, bearing his own cross, to the place called The Place of a Skull, which in Aramaic is called Golgotha. 18 There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, and Jesus between them. 19 Pilate also wrote an inscription and put it on the cross. It read, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.” 20 Many of the Jews read this inscription, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and it was written in Aramaic, in Latin, and in Greek. 21 So the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, “Do not write, ‘The King of the Jews,’ but rather, ‘This man said, I am King of the Jews.’ ” 22 Pilate answered, “What I have written I have written.” 23 When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his garments and divided them into four parts, one part for each soldier; also his tunic. But the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom, 24 so they said to one another, “Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it to see whose it shall be.” This was to fulfill the Scripture which says, “They divided my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.” So the soldiers did these things,

    Prayer of Invocation

    Pastor Wayne

    Songs of Worship

    Praise Him! Praise Him!
    Because He Lives!
    ​
    Sermon Series: “Behold, My Servant!”
    Sermon: “The Appalling Servant of God!”
    ​

    Introduction:

    One of the great advantages of having the Old Testament and the New Testament in one Bible is that they give support to each other. Together they strengthen our faith that both Testaments are God’s word. The Israelites of Jesus’ day and all the Old Testament saints of God did not enjoy the revealing nature of the New Testament upon the Old. What a privilege! What an honor! What a responsibility!
    The better you know Jesus Christ, the better you know how His life and ministry were rooted in the Old Testament where God was at work to prepare for the coming of his Son into history, that is His-story.
    And the better you know the Old Testament, the better you know the meaning of the life and death of Jesus Christ. The better you know what He came to fulfill as you see that God had been planning all of this since before the foundations of the earth were laid.
    With all of that in mind this morning, I believe that it would deepen our understanding and strengthen our faith if we fixed our gaze on the death and atonement of Christ as it was described by the prophet Isaiah over 700 years before it actually happened.
    If you have your Bibles, please turn to this wonderful fifth Gospel account found in Isaiah 53, for review let’s begin reading in Isaiah 52:13.
    Isaiah 52:13–53:6 ESV
    13 Behold, my servant shall act wisely; he shall be high and lifted up, and shall be exalted. 14 As many were astonished at you— his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of the children of mankind— 15 so shall he sprinkle many nations. Kings shall shut their mouths because of him, for that which has not been told them they see, and that which they have not heard they understand. 1 Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? 2 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. 3 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. 4 Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. 5 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. 6 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.

    Prayer for Illumination

    Romans 1:16 ESV
    16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
    Church, today we are going to see that there’s enough gospel dynamite in those verses, that if it is ignited by the Holy Spirit’s spark of faith it has the power to blow the sin, the doubt, the hatred, the anxiety, the discouragement, and the confusion out of any heart and give us a hope that is steadfast and sure.
    The greatest tragedy our world has ever known took place on a hill called, Golgotha, just outside the city of Jerusalem where the Son of God willingly hung upon a cross. Jesus, hanging in agony and blood, dying, cried out “It is finished,” (John 19:30), “and He bowed His head and gave up His spirit.”

    Why did Jesus have to die upon that old rugged cross?

    Why? Why the cross? Why did Jesus have to die upon that old rugged cross? If God is all-loving and all-powerful, couldn’t He have forgiven our sins without the suffering death of Christ upon the cross? Couldn’t God have just asked us if we were sorry for our sin? If we were, couldn’t He just say, “Okay, I forgive you!” Why did Jesus have to die?
    Parents ask that question all the time of their children, “Are you sorry for what you did wrong?” “Yes ma’am or yes sir! I’ll never do it again, I promise!” “Do you forgive me?” Now how does that normally work out? Our sin nature drives us to continually break that promise, so something had to be done on our behalf! We simply aren’t righteous or just enough on our own!
    Now, If you know anything about Calvary this morning, you know that it was not only earth’s greatest tragedy, it was also God’s greatest triumph! God had a plan and purpose in every detail of the whole occurence. Listen to 1 Peter 3:18...
    1 Peter 3:18 ESV
    18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit,
    1 Peter 3:18 NKJV
    18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit,
    God is holy. Christ is holy! What does that mean? Well, it means that God is the complete opposite of sin. He is righteous, He is just! He is the just one! God is holy and we are not!
    We are the unjust. The glory of God is revealed in His holiness.
    Romans 3:23 ESV
    23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
    All means ALL! We have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God! Our medical condition is that we are sinful and unjust. The Just God can’t allow unjust man to enter into His holy presence. Our condition is terminal sinful rebellion against God’s love and holiness. The unjust against the Just One! We are God’s enemies, yet He sent His Son to die for us anyway!
    Romans 5:10 ESV
    10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.
    Open your favorite news app or scroll through the news on Social media any time you want. You will read all about sinful scandals, but there is one word you will not find used in the vast majority of those articles. It is the word sin! We simply don’t like the idea of sin. Man is basically good, He is not evil. We may be weak but we aren’t wicked. We may cause suffering, but we are surely not sinful. Wrong Wrong Wrong!
    Our problem is S-I-N! Sin! God is holy. He is just. He is righteous. We are unholy. We are the unjust. We are the unrighteous. If the Bible is correct, and it is, then Houston we have a problem! How can a Holy God punish sin and love the sinner at the same time?
    Remember Peter said, “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God.” The judge has passed His verdict, the rebellious criminal is guilty on all accounts, but then, amazingly, the Judge sends His only Son, and has Him go and stand in the place of the accused and bear the full weight of the punishment upon Himself - the just for the unjust!
    Listen! You will never understand the cross of Calvary until you understand the biblical principle of substitutionary atonement. Jesus was the Judge’s son and He died for you and me!
    There is no way that God could just overlook sin. If He did, He would fail to be just and righteous. If God were to just say, “My love allows that sin to go unpunished,” then God, though some might call Him loving, would be unjust.
    God would be unholy. God Himself would have broken His own law that continually condemns sin. From Genesis to Revelation, we hear the message of Romans 6:23
    Romans 6:23 ESV
    23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
    No. God must be just. God cannot merely overlook sin. But God is a God of infinite love. So God allowed His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to take that sin upon Himself and go to the cross. The Bible teaches that the cross was in the heart and mind of God before the world was ever created. Speaking about those who will worship the beast in the last days, John reveals that the only ones who will worship the beast are those…Revelation 13:8...
    Revelation 13:8 ESV
    8 and all who dwell on earth will worship it, everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain.
    Is your name written in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain? Jesus was the lamb slain before the foundation of the world. The prophecy of Isaiah points us to this slaying of the Lamb of God in vivid detail, I remind you, over 700 years before Christ took on flesh and dwelt among us!
    When God said Behold, My Servant in Isa.52:13, He was pointing us to Jesus Christ, who would become the atoning servant of God!
    I want you to see three things from this great prophecy this morning.

    1. The Atoning Servant Carried Our Responsibility.

    Isaiah 53:4 ESV
    4 Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.
    The verse begins with the word “surely,” which emphatically points us to the truth of God. Surely, this servant of God has… notice there are two verbs in the first phrase…the servant of God has borne and carried our griefs and sorrows.
    The two Hebrew words used in this passage are synonyms that together communicate the idea that our servant has borne or carried something that belonged to someone else. Notice that the Israelites that are speaking to us here are referring to things that have been witnessed. Every word so far is passive in tense.
    What is the griefs and sorrows that He is carrying? Could it be the weight of the punishment that we, the unjust were supposed to bear?
    Of course it is! Our responsibility as we have already seen, was to suffer the wages of our sins which are death. Christ is the atoning servant who carried our responsibility and suffered and died on our behalf. The just for the unjust!
    The Israelites who believe understood this. Look at the last half of the verse.
    Isaiah 53:4 ESV
    4 Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.
    Remember in verse 3, these believers reported that they didn’t esteem Jesus rightly. Now, here we have them saying that, with hindsight being 20/20, they esteemed him as one suffering afflictions that were justly sent by God for the sins he had committed.
    In a sense, they were right in this estimation for God did strike and smite him, but they misunderstood why he was being afflicted. He was not being punished for his own sins, but for those that He carried for others.
    The Atoning Servant of God carried our responsibility for our sin upon Himself. He alone drank the cup of God’s wrath on our behalf.

    2. The Atoning Servant Endured Punishment to Give Us Two Incredible Gifts!

    Why did Jesus have to die? We find the answer in this verse.
    Isaiah 53:5 ESV
    5 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.
    Let’s quickly focus on four words that point to two incredible blessings. Two verbs and Two nouns. Underline these words in your Bibles. They are incredibly important.
    Pierced or Slain.
    Crushed
    Chastisement
    Wounds
    These terms graphically portray the depth of the suffering of the Servant, the seriousness of his pain, and the extent of God’s smiting. It is very clear that the Servant actually died in this verse. There was no coming back, humanly speaking, from the punishment He endured.
    Why did He suffer? Why was He pierced? Why was He crushed? Believer, here we see the penal substitution of Christ on our behalf.
    Pierced for our Rebellion
    He was pierced because of our transgressions. Here we see the very seriousness of sin! Isaiah calls it transgression, which is simply a polite way of saying that we were in open rebellion against the One who created us and loved us enough to give us life with Him, made in His image. We dared to cross the lines that God warned us not to cross, and then we did so repeatedly.
    There is no one who is good, we are all sinners, we have all rebelled against God and fallen short of His glorious standard of holiness.
    Crushed for our Iniquities
    Iniquities represent the sinful burden we were to bear. It was a heavy burden that grew heavier the longer we rebel against God.
    Psalm 38:4 ESV
    4 For my iniquities have gone over my head; like a heavy burden, they are too heavy for me.
    God literally crushed His servant under the weight of our sinful burden so that we could be forgiven and freed from the harsh taskmaster of sin.
    Chastisement that brought us peace
    Chastisement is another word for punishment. The just one being punished for the unjust! Here we have the first of two great gifts, two benefits to those who would believe. This chastisement or punishment was designed for the express purpose, the singular purpose of securing our peace. This servant we are beholding, was able to achieve peace with God through his enduring our punishment on our behalf.
    Romans 5:10 ESV
    10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.
    Romans 5:1 ESV
    1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
    Romans 8:1 ESV
    1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
    With his wounds we are healed.
    By his suffering, literally, in his wounds we find spiritual healing and mercy.
    This view is called vicarious atonement. A “vicar” is someone who stands in the place of another or who represents another. Christ’s death was therefore “vicarious” because he stood in our place and represented us. As our representative, he took the penalty that we deserve.
    ​

    3. The Atoning Servant Calls us to Confession and Faith.

    Isaiah 53:6 ESV
    6 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.
    The focus on His victory will come later, right now is the time for the Israelites and for us to humble ourselves and confess that we have gone astray.
    1.We deserve to die as the penalty for sin.
    2.We deserve to bear God’s wrath against sin.
    3.We are separated from God by our sins.
    4.We are in bondage to sin and to the kingdom of Satan.
    But God intervened when He sent us Jesus! The atonement is the completed work Christ did in his life and death to earn our salvation.
    We all need it! We have all like sheep gone astray!
    Thomas Manton, a puritan preacher of old, once said...
    …when wandering sinners are compared to wandering sheep, we have a striking image of the danger of their state, and their inability to recover themselves. Sheep wandering without a shepherd are exposed, a defenceless and easy prey, to wild beasts and enemies, and liable to perish for want of pasture; for they are not able either to provide for themselves, or to find their way back to the place from whence they strayed. Whatever they suffer, they continue to wander, and if not sought out, will be lost.
    So it is with humanity. God made us upright and good, and we have sought out many schemes to rebel against God and His goodness toward us.
    Ecclesiastes 7:29 ESV
    29 See, this alone I found, that God made man upright, but they have sought out many schemes.
    God has appointed for mankind a safe and pleasant path, which by walking in it we could find rest for our souls; but we say, “We will not walk in it!”
    Jeremiah 6:16 ESV
    16 Thus says the Lord: “Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls. But they said, ‘We will not walk in it.’
    The Atoning Servant of God has finished His work at Calvary on our behalf, all that is left upon us is to believe him and confess our sin and our need for forgiveness.
    Romans 10:9–10 ESV
    9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.
    The Just died for the unjust so that we might be saved through faith in His righteousness alone.
    Romans 3:26 ESV
    26 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
    Charles Spurgeon once said,
    Whenever a man is healed through the stripes of Christ, the instincts of his nature should make him say, “I will spend the strength I have, as a healed man, for Him who healed me.” If you know that Jesus has healed you, serve Him, by telling others about the healing medicine. Tell it to your children; tell it to your servants; leave none around you ignorant of it. Hang it up everywhere in letters of boldest type. “With His stripes we are healed.”
    ​
    When I survey the wondrous cross
    On which the Prince of Glory died,
    My richest gain I count but loss,
    And pour contempt on all my pride.
    Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast,
    Save in the death of Christ my God:
    All the vain things that charm me most,
    I sacrifice them to his blood.
    See, from his head, his hands, his feet,
    Sorrow and love flow mingled down:
    Did e’er such love and sorrow meet,
    Or thorns compose so rich a crown?
    His dying crimson, like a robe,
    Spread o’er his body on the tree;
    Then am I dead to all the globe,
    And all the globe is dead to me.
    Were the whole realm of nature mine,
    That were a present far too small;
    Love so amazing, so divine,
    Demands my soul, my life, my all.
    ​
    ​
    Invitation
    Room at the Cross for you!
    ​
    ​

      • Isaiah 52:13–53:6ESV

      • Romans 1:16ESV

      • 1 Peter 3:18ESV

      • 1 Peter 3:18ESV

      • Romans 3:23ESV

      • Romans 5:10ESV

      • Romans 6:23ESV

      • Revelation 13:8ESV

      • Isaiah 53:4ESV

      • Isaiah 53:4ESV

      • Isaiah 53:5ESV

      • Psalm 38:4ESV

      • Romans 5:10ESV

      • Romans 5:1ESV

      • Romans 8:1ESV

      • Isaiah 53:6ESV

      • Ecclesiastes 7:29ESV

      • Jeremiah 6:16ESV

      • Romans 10:9–10ESV

      • Romans 3:26ESV

  • Room At The Cross For You
Ephesus Baptist Church
ephesus.church@yahoo.com
252-478-3652
https://ebcspringhope.com
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