[SPOKEN WORD ONLY] Voice of the King. Episode One. Track Two: What Scripture Actually Says. Open Isaiah chapter fifty-three. Verse two. “For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.” [PAUSE] Verse three calls Him: “despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief.” Notice what Isaiah is doing. This is not a portrait sketch. It is the suffering Servant. Rejected. Uncelebrated. Not received because of outward splendor. Isaiah chapter fifty-two says: “his visage was so marred more than any man.” And Isaiah chapter fifty tells us: “my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair.” He gave His back to those who struck Him. The Messiah suffers in a real body. He is humiliated. Wounded. Rejected. [PAUSE] Now turn to Revelation chapter one. John sees the glorified Christ. Eyes “as a flame of fire.” Voice “as the sound of many waters.” Feet “like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace.” His countenance shines with overwhelming glory. This tells us something enormous about Christ: Authority. Holiness. Judgment. Glory. But Revelation is vision. It should not be reduced to a modern police sketch of Jesus walking through Galilee. That would ask the text to do something it was not written to do. [BACKGROUND SOFTENS] So what does Scripture clearly give us? Jesus Christ was real. He entered history. He was Jewish. He suffered. He was crucified. He was buried. And the apostolic witness says He rose again. Scripture gives us surprisingly little about satisfying curiosity over His ordinary appearance. But it gives us much about who He is. His words. His works. His death. His resurrection. His authority. His return. Maybe the better question is not: What did Jesus look like? Maybe the better question is: Who did Jesus say He was? [PAUSE] Do not replace Scripture with a portrait. And do not replace Scripture with speculation. Let the text speak. This is Voice of the King. Open the Book. Hear the King.
