Who has believed our report?
And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant,
And as a root out of dry ground.
He has no form or comeliness;
And when we see Him,
There is no beauty that we should desire Him.
He is despised and rejected by men,
A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him;
He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.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 iniquities;
The chastisement for 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……..Isaiah 53 : 1-12
From the Scripture above, we began to see an account of the prophesy about the Messiah to come. It was a vivid account of the life of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ to many of us isn't just the Messiah, He is the Ultimate Leader, a Model Leader, the one the LORD has set as an example or a model Leader through whom we can become effective leaders in our generations. He was a Man who has endured and who has suffered greatly and has laid a pattern for many men and women who intends to become relevant and influential in their generation.
Now, many of us love to be called by the word 'Leaders' but very few of us are willing to go through what it takes to become a leader. And very few again are ready and are willing to commit themselves to the demands of leadership. Today, we are looking at the Culpable Palpable Leader. The story we just read in Isaiah 53 was about Jesus. The portion in verse 4 tells us that He has borne our grief.
"Surely He has borne our grief 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 iniquities.."
The grief Jesus bore was not His, it was ours. And the Scriptures says surely He has borne our grieves and carried our sorrows. These things weren't is, they were ours. But He took it upon Himself and yet, we esteemed Him lightly. He became blamed and culpable, not because He was wrong, not because He was at fault or transgressed, not because iniquity was found in Him, but because of us. He endured and suffered not because of His own sins, but our sins. He became important in our lives by the things He suffered.
Remember that place in Hebrews where the Scripture says, even though He was a son, He learnt obedience by the things He suffered (Hebrews 5:8). He didn't just learn obedience by the things He suffered, He also becomes influential and relevant in our affairs by His decision to suffer for us. We were entitled to the suffering, it was our right to suffer (if I may use that). We were expected to suffer and be bruised and go through painful moments. We were expected to be in bondage. In fact, we were expected to fail simply because we had been born in an order that is in error, we had been fashioned in an order that had been corrupted and diluted, and has been reduced in effectiveness and intensity. We were not as bright as we were originally when we were created.
By virtue of the sin of Adam and that of our fathers, we were born into sin. We were expected therefore to be far from God, we were expected to be a generation that never enjoys anything from God. We were expected to be a people that are nothing and nobody. However, Jesus; the Bible says when we were yet sinners, He died for us (Romans 5:8). The truth is, Jesus died for the whole world. And that became a pattern for anyone that intends to become a leader in this world. If you want to be great, if you want to become an influential man or woman, if you want to be fulfilled at the time of your departure, you want to be able to say it is finished without looking at matters that have not been resolved, then you must settle it in your heart that you are not going to be a man of yourself and for yourself, you must be a man of the people and for the people. You must be a man whose interest is to satisfy and meet the needs of the people, both those that are crying for attention and those that are unpublicized.
Now let us examine the verse one of that Isaiah 53 again.
"Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, And as a root out of dry ground."
Notice the word "He shall grow" in verse two. For you to ever become great and an entity that is reckoned with in your generation, for you to ever become a solution to the problems of nation, a point of reference and a city on a hill that cannot be hidden, a light that shines in darkness, if you want to become a man or woman that inspires your nation, your organization, your denomination, your church, your ministry, one thing that you must settle with is that you must grow up. For you to ever become influential, the growth process must begin with your growth.
Irrespective of the circumstances that surrounds your birth, irrespective of the circumstance that surrounds your spiritual birth, your society, or your economy, you must make sure that you are committed to your growth. You must not be comfortable being where you were before or what you know right now or what you used to know. If all you know right now is all you have always known, then there is no point listening to you. There is nothing new that you stand to bring to the table. If you will ever become great, you must commit yourself to your growth. That is number one!
Number two, the Scriptures says He has no form or comeliness. When we are talking about form, we are talking about appearance. His appearance is not a bogus one or the one that intends to impress, He does not try to make you feel that He is an important person, He does not have this assuming appearance that intimidates other people. His appearance was simple. We must understand this pattern. The first thing is that He is growing up, the second thing is that He has a simple appearance. Another word for this is humility. How do you portray yourself? Do you try to package yourself when in reality you are still struggling? If you would become an influential man in your generation, you are not necessarily expected to be an assuming personality, a man that spends most of the time trying to have a form and be comely, trying to be attractive. That is not supposed to be your focus.
Now, let us examine verse 3 of Isaiah 53.
"He is despised and rejected by men, A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him."
If you look at what that portions talks about, it is about a man or a woman who is able to manage his or her emotions. Now if you would become great and an entity to be reckon with, you must manage your emotions. That you will become great does not negate that you cannot be rejected, that you will become influential does not mean you would not despise you. Let us examine Apostle Paul's advise to Timothy. He told him…"Let no man despise your youth." (1 Timothy 4:12). It is not as if men will not despise your youth, but do not allow it. The point is they can determine what they will do to you, but you can also determine how to respond to them.
When people talk you down, do you stay down or do you encourage yourself in the Lord your God? Do you tell yourself there is more to you than what people see? I may have know form or comeliness now, but I am a growing man and I will emerge. The Scripture says Jesus was despised and rejected, but He was able to handle it. He had such an emotion that He was not a victim of his circumstances, but that which made Him to rise above the circumstances. That is the third thing that you must note on your journey to greatness and to fulfillment in leadership.
Now, let us examine verse four of Isaiah 53.
"Surely He has borne our grief and carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted."
The question is, who made Him to carry and to suffer the things that we were expected to suffer? He chose it, He decided to suffer for the people. The things that are supposed to limit the people, He decided to take it upon Himself to suffer for the people. He decided to sacrifice Himself for the people. Verse 5 of the same chapter of Isaiah 53 also buttresses this fact. A factor that you must never play with is self sacrifice. Imagine you doing nothing wrong, and you are being punished for the wrongdoing of others. It is different from when a man or a person actually did something wrong and he or she is being punished for it. Nobody will pity such a person.
Now Jesus has laid a serious example for many people to follow including myself. He sacrificed Himself. And so, if you want to be great, you must be willing to sacrifice yourself, not for your own sins and wrongs, but for the sins and wrongs of others. You must be able to position yourself in a place to take the blame for your people, to suffer for your people. Do you notice that was exactly what Jesus did? These things that He suffered for, they were not things He deserve to go through. We deserve it, the generations past and those to come deserve them, but He went through it so that you and I would not have to go through it. That is an example of a leader that we must follow: a culpable palpable leader!
Now, let us examine verse 6 of that Isaiah 53.
"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."
Imagine an organization made up of the leader and the team and imagine a situation where the team commit an error and people from outside came and say what is going on in this organization? And the leader comes out say, please spare my people from this error, I will take the responsibility on myself. If you must punish anyone then punish me. Now, that is being responsible and taking responsibility. If you will become an influential man or woman and become great in your generation, you must be willing to accept responsibility, both for blame and praise. You must be willing to accept responsibility to stand up and to suffer as well. Being responsible is very key in your journey to greatness.
What is the purpose of God for your leadership? What is the purpose of God for your life? Are you willing to go through it? Purposeful submission is another factor that can help you to become influential in your generation. If you are expected to submit to your purpose by speaking for your people, and you chose to keep quiet, that will be a rebellion to the purpose of God for your life. When you submit to the purpose of God, you are simply submitting to the authority of God over your life. Never you keep quiet when you are expected to speak up for the people.
As I begin to round off this message now, let us examine in summary what we have learned from Isaiah 53 about the Culpable Palpable Leadership of Jesus Christ. If you examine this passage from verse one, we saw how Jesus began to grow, became comeliness, humbled Himself, left His glory and took the form of a man. We also saw how He handled His emotions, how He took responsibility, we saw self-sacrifice and we also saw that He submitted to the purpose of God for His life. Jesus as a palpable culpable leader has shown us how not to live for ourselves but for the purpose of others.
It is my great joy bringing these words your way, and I believe you are going to meditate over them and allow the Holy Spirit to expound them to you the more. The extent you are willing to go for your nation or your organization will determine how great you will be at the end of the day. What defines your life is what you do and the things you commit yourself as it concerns and pertains to others.
Thanks you and God bless you.
