New Focus Church

Isaiah saw the Lord Jesus Christ ‘high and lifted up’. This is our glorious, victorious Saviour. Isaiah saw Him as He truly is: the sovereign God, the King in His Kingdom, ruling and reigning according to His good pleasure. Here are seven views Isaiah received in seeing his Saviour in this way. May we thus see Him, too.

The Lord Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever, and everywhere in scripture where the Lord Jesus Christ is found is as relevant yesterday, today and forever. Isaiah preached many years ago but his message is relevant to us today, warning of judgment to come for the wicked and God’s faithfulness in Jesus Christ to the elect remnant.

The Lord Jesus Christ was foreseen by Isaiah. He looked forward to a time when the beauty and glory of the Messiah would be seen through all the earth. With this prophecy he encouraged and comforted the elect of his own day as he anticipated the fruitfulness of Christ in bringing many sons to glory.

The Lord Jesus Christ is always pleased to comfort, defend and represent His people whom He loves with an everlasting love. He calls us ‘righteous’ because we are pure, clean and holy in Him. He calls us, ‘my people’ because He owns us as our Creator, Redeemer and Bridegroom. He calls us ‘the poor’ because we are the blessed poor whom He has fitted to receive all the riches of His grace and glory.

The Lord Jesus Christ in His death and resurrection established His kingdom, sent forth His ministers and is not victoriously gathering God’s elect from all the nations of the world. Isaiah saw this great work of the last days seven centuries before Christ came. He encouraged the Lord’s people of his age with this prophecy. We should be encouraged in its fulfilment.

The Lord Jesus Christ is the subject of all the scripture and the message of redemption and salvation is clearly seen in Isaiah’s prophecy by those to whom the gospel is revealed. Isaiah tells us the Lord God has a remnant people chosen by grace whose sins shall be purely purged and who will be washed and made clean in the blood of Jesus Christ.

The Lord Jesus Christ is the Lord our Shepherd. David knew this and writes beautifully and preciously of his personal relationship with the Lord Jesus his Shepherd. What better way to begin our New Year than being reminded, ‘The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want’ and shall be, ‘all the days of my life’.

The Lord Jesus Christ was announced by the angel with these words, ‘Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.’. The gospel takes away our fear. It brings good tidings of great joy because our Saviour, Christ the Lord is born.

The Lord Jesus Christ came into the world in ‘the fulness of time’. That is, He came when God had prepared all the circumstances for His manifestation. The people, the places, the timing and the events of Christ’s birth were not left to chance but purposefully organised so that everything promised, prophesied and appertaining to Christ’s birth would be exactly as God had planned.

The Lord Jesus Christ’s coming was promised and prophesied. The Old Testament believers had lots of knowledge about the Messiah’s coming and many glorious aspects of Christ revealed to them concerning His nature, character, work and accomplishments. Our Saviour’s name ‘shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace’.

The world had not long been created when Satan in the form of a serpent tempted Adam and Eve to disobey God’s command. The result was not the blessedness man hoped for but shame, guilt and expulsion from the presence and fellowship of God. Yet, even in the very process of declaiming sin and bringing judgment our Lord God gave mankind hope by pointing forward to a Seed who would destroy the works o...

At the Saviour’s ascension we are told Christ was received up into heaven, that is, He was received with praise, glory and worship as the victor returned from the fight. As believers we look forward to the day we shall be caught up by Him, ever to dwell with Him, our blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

Our Saviour’s great commission to His disciples was that they preach the gospel to every creature. It was the gospel for free, sovereign grace that must be preached. The message of particular redemption, complete forgiveness and justifying righteousness for God’s people by the death of Jesus Christ. That is the gospel. Nothing else will do. May the Lord give us boldness to continue to preach the s...

Our Saviour’s Resurrection Day visits totalled five and each of them was designed to help, support, encourage and comfort His people for the challenges they faced. Being visited by the risen Christ is a privilege granted exclusively to the Lord’s elect and a gift discovered by faith each time the gospel is preached to the heart of a child of God.

For the women present that morning by the empty tomb, and all who believe their testimony, and the testimony of scripture, the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the indisputable fact that fuels our faith. By Christ’s resurrection we have the good hope of entering heaven with these very bodies suitably changed, there to experience and enjoy life with Christ forever.

The burial of the Lord Jesus Christ is as much an integral part of the gospel as the death and resurrection of Christ, Paul tells us. Here we consider the fact of Christ's  burial, the scriptural significance of Christ's burial, and the power and comfort of Christ's burial for God's people. 

As our Lord Jesus Christ hung on the cross there was three hours of darkness and an earthquake which shattered rocks and opened graves. Nature groaned as the Son of God suffered. The Saviour felt the absence of His Father’s comfort in the midst of His trials but He drank the cup of suffering to the end and with the satisfaction of God’s justice came a return of the sun and the rending of the templ...

Our Lord Jesus Christ’s suffering did not end with His physical abuse at the hands of His enemies. Throughout these first three hours of His hanging on the cross the soldiers who crucified Him, the thieves with whom He was crucified, the passers-by, the religious Jews all shouted scorn at the pitiful figure and tempted Him to prove His claims and come down from the cross. But our Saviour would not...

Our Lord Jesus Christ was brutally treated by Pilate’s soldiers before being crucified. He was physically abused and mocked and paraded to the amusement of His enemies. A crown of thorns was placed on His head and a reed sceptre in His hand. His foes knelt before Him in mock worship. As Christ’s enemies satisfied their evil desires on the Son of God they unwittingly fulfilled all the Old Testament...

Our Lord Jesus Christ was delivered by Pilate to be crucified but Barabbas went free. In today’s passage we see the worthiness and suitability of Christ to save and learn about our own guilt as robbers, rebels and murderers before God. Barabbas is a type of all God’s elect in their natural state. 02 October 2022

Our Lord Jesus Christ was bound by His enemies and delivered to Pilate. Here we learn about the Lord’s suretyship, His kingly office and the meaning of His silence before His accusers.

Peter’s denial of the Lord Jesus Christ was a grave matter and brought about the fall of this dear saint. How prone we all are to sin and how easily we become ensnared by fear and lies. Yet, Peter was a child of grace, an heir of salvation, and the Lord Jesus, despite the offence caused looked lovingly and mercifully upon His needy friend.

Our Lord Jesus Christ was accused of all manner of crimes and condemned to death as guilty. His foolish judges did not know what they were talking about. But God the righteous judge imputed the sin of His chosen, elect people to their Surety. He laid their sin on His Son. He made Christ, who knew no sin to be sin for us, and righty, truly, legally and justly declared Him guilty of death.

Our Lord Jesus Christ met those who came to arrest Him in Gethsemane with boldness and courage yet He was also meek and compliant to the will of His Father that He might fulfil all that was written in the scriptures and satisfy His obligations in the covenant of grace.

The suffering for sin of our Lord Jesus Christ commenced in the Garden of Gethsemane where His soul-suffering is described as Him being ‘in an agony’, ‘exceeding sorrowful unto death’. Here our Saviour felt the judgment of God and the temptation of the devil. Here He lay alone without human support and carried the weight of His people’s sin.