Easter Sunday 2010

This Changes Everything

Matthew 28:1-8 Now after the Sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. ²And behold, there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. ³His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. ⁴And for fear of him the guards trembled and became like dead men. ⁵But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. ⁶He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. ⁷Then go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead, and behold, he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him. See, I have told you.” ⁸So they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples.

The THIS that changes everything is the collective events of Easter — Beginning with the events that took place in and around Jerusalem on Passover, leading to a hill outside of the walls of Jerusalem — a place called Golgotha. There Jesus of Nazareth experienced the inconceivable brutality of death by crucifixion for the sins of the world. Joseph of Arimathea took the body of Jesus from the cross — and along with a man named Nicodemus buried Jesus in the tomb belonging to Joseph — in a garden near to the place where he was crucified. THEN — on the morning of the first day of the week Jesus rose from the grave — conquering death and hell — guaranteeing that His death on that cross satisfied the justice of God.

An old hymn puts it like this —

Crown him the Lord of life, who triumphed o’er the grave, and rose victorious in the strife for those he came to save. His glories now we sing, who died, and rose on high, who died, eternal life to bring, and lives that death may die.

THAT is the THIS that changes everything!

Many would say that the record of those the events MUST be fabricated because NOTHING has ever really changed.

There is plenty of stuff on the evening news and on the home pages of internet news sites that lend CREDIBILITY to the cynic’s theory. Crime, tragedy, natural disasters, poverty,  corruption — all around the world things seems to be as messed up as they have always been.

January 12, 2010 — at 4:53 p.m. — 7.0 magnitude quake’s epicenter hit just 10 miles west of Porte-au-Prince and its 2 million inhabitants

February 27, 2010 — Chilean earthquake 8.8 on the Richter Scale. The quake moved the earth 3 inches off its axis, shortening our day by milliseconds.

LAST WEEK —

Monday, March 29, 2010 — Muslim women’s suicide attacks killed 39 on the Russian capital’s metro on Monday. Investigators said they may have been among 30 women who trained as suicide bombers in Turkey.

Tuesday, March 30, 2010 — CIA: Iran capable of producing nukes

Tuesday, March 30, 2010 — Three weeks ago, Joseph “Zeke” Rucker was worried about which law school he would attend. Now, the 21-year-old from Sewell, New Jersey is fighting for his life after apparently being severely beaten while on a trip to Mexico.

March 31, 6:04 AM (ET) MAKHACHKALA, Russia (AP) – Two suicide bombers including one impersonating a police officer killed 12 people in southern Russia on Wednesday, two days after deadly suicide bombings blamed on the region’s militants tore through the Moscow subway system and killed 39 and injured scores more. Bombings and other attacks occur almost daily in Dagestan, Chechnya and Ingushetia, provinces in Russia’s North Caucasus region where government forces are struggling against a separatist Islamist insurgency.

I could go on and on — but I’m sure we all get the point — and there is plenty for anyone to argue that the events of Easter have changed nothing!

In light of those realities it seems very paradoxical for me to say that the CROSS AND RESURRECTION “change everything”.

Paradox — para- ‘distinct from’ + doxa ‘opinion.’

Paradox — a statement or proposition that, despite sound (or apparently sound) reasoning from acceptable premises, leads to a conclusion that seems senseless, logically unacceptable, or self-contradictory

For me to stand before you this morning and say that those Easter events “Change everything” may seem senseless, logically unacceptable — but it is true, none the less.

The events of those few days in the first century A.D. have changed everything — ONE HEART AT A TIME.

You see — there is a world unseen to the natural eye. And it is in regards to this unseen world that everything is changed.

This unseen world EXERTS its influence every day on that which we see with our natural eye. What other explanation can we give for radically  changed lives down through the ages — right up to 2010.

2 Corinthians 4:18  While we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

Many are unaware of this of this unseen world and yet they know INTUITIVELY there must be something more. They are aware that beside their physical being — their height and weight, color of eyes —there is an inward man — an inward us.

This same man Paul made this statement about himself and other men and women whose lives had been changed by the events of Easter.

2 Corinthians 4:16 So we do not lose heart. Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day.

You may not yet be fully aware of the of all the implications of the “inward man” — But you are very much aware of the first half of this verse — the outward man is wasting away

As the years roll on it is plain for all to see, my outward man is perishing!  Or more literally, thoroughly rotting.  Oh how it used to have no wrinkles, no gray hair,  (hey you laugh but at least I still have hair)  Ever noticed as your body ages, you loose hair where you want it, and gain hair where you don’t want it. Never thought when I first learned to shave I’d have to eventually do it up my nose, in my ears.  As the outward man is wasting away — my waist isn’t! Everything starts to wear out, fall out, or spread out.  You know how it is — you have stopped growing at both ends, and have begun to grow in the middle.

Then there’s the wasting away of the mind.

They say there are three signs of old age. The first is your loss of memory.  I forget the other two. Do you ever find yourself walking into a room and you can’t remember why you are going there? Do you ever find yourself walking into a room and you stop and ask yourself — Why did I come in here?

The old body is wearing out. Thank God this out ward man is not all there is.

The outward man is wasting away — perishing. But I am not to loose heart because the Bible tells me that the inward man is being renewed every day.

My body is getting older but it is as if my spirit gets younger every day.  The real  me, housed at this time in this tent, will live on forever.

I’m not going to take for granted that you all understand this.

This scripture does not apply to all men everywhere. It’s not true that every man and every woman is being renewed in the inward man —in their spirit — from day to day.  For some — as their outward man is perishing — the inward man is in fact dead.  The spirit is dead until a person is born again.  You may have a wonderfully fit, young and well conditioned outward man — but be dead inside.

God created man in His own Image and Likeness.

God is Triune —
Father
Son
Spirit
So he created man —
spirit
soul
body.

It is in the realm of the spirit where man enjoyed fellowship with God. After man fell he DIED — Spiritual death immediately and eventually physical death. From Genesis 3 forward man has existed as Body and Soul. Because of this spiritual death man — from Genesis 3 forward man has been driven and controlled by the body appetites.

HUGE — The spirit is dead and needs to be made alive. God created human beings spirit soul and body. After man fell he became body, soul, and spirit. From the fall of man forward man is driven and controlled by the body appetites and emotions.  That’s all because of sin. The spirit is dead and needs to be made alive.

There is only one thing that can CHANGE that eternally fatal condition. It is only by faith in Jesus Christ that man can be regenerated — made spiritually alive.  Not too long ago we learned in John 3 that Jesus said you must be born again. He said we need to be born of water and born of the spirit.

John 3:5 “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

Born of water speaks of our physical birth. We come into this world physically alive but spiritually dead. In that condition the physical body appetites control the unregenerate person.

There has to be a new birth where my spirit is made alive unto God.

Ephesians 2:1 NKJV “And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins,”

Ephesians 2:1-7 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins ²in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— ³among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. ⁴But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, ⁵even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— ⁶and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, ⁷so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

Made alive — In the beginning God breathed on man and made man a living soul. But through disobedience — through sin — man died spiritually. He was cut off from God, who is His life. AGAIN — the realm of spirit is where man meets God.

When you are Born again through faith in Jesus your spirit comes alive. You become a total person, as God originally intended —A spirit in a body — possessing a consciousness. When you are born again you are no longer totally absorbed with, controlled by, physical needs and emotions. You become aware of God and spiritual life.

When you are born again you have the capacity to enjoy fellowship and relationship with God, who is Spirit. Before being born again —You have no relationship with God — No fellowship with God. You can not see or enter the Kingdom of God. (John 3; 1 Cor. 2:14)

THE NATURAL MAN

1 Corinthians 2:14  But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

When you are born again — You enter into a dimension of life that is completely foreign to the life you knew before hand — completely foreign to those who have not yet entered into that new life in Christ. They simply can’t understand the things of the spirit. Just as the blind man cannot enjoy the beauty of this sunrise; or the deaf the sound of the waves crashing or birds singing — Because he doesn’t have the faculties to experience and enjoy them. So too — the natural man, those who have not been born again — Do not have the faculty to experience the things of God.

HUGE — He or she is not aware of this unseen world. But that is  where the events of the cross and resurrection have changed everything

WHEN you are born again into this NEW DIMENSION of life you become aware of eternity. You begin to live a life with a spiritual dimension — you now desire to live after the spirit, not the flesh.

Now — spirit, soul and body — My desire is to please God — and live a life controlled by the Holy Spirit rather than be controlled by the desires of my flesh. NOW — the unseen is exerting influence on my life. My outward man may be wasting away — perishing — but my inward man is being renewed each day.

ALL of this is owing to what Jesus did for me by His death on the cross — where He paid for my sins — and by His resurrection from the grave which guarantees the forgiveness of my sins and this life derived from God.

The cross and resurrection CHANGE EVERYTHING in MY heart! I begin to look at things I cannot see with these eyes. Sounds weird eh?

2 Corinthians 4:18 ¹⁸as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

How can you look at something not seen? Paul looked at this this unseen world and it had a radical effect upon him — It changed everything about the way he viewed life — even the way he viewed suffering and affliction.

2 Corinthians 11:24-28 ²⁴Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. ²⁵Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; ²⁶on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; ²⁷in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. ²⁸And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches.

He must be mad!  Unless he sees something others haven’t.  He has looked at things not seen.  And it has done something in him that has caused him to not merely bear the sufferings of this present age — But it has actually made him capable of saying that he found those afflictions to be LIGHT! The cross and resurrection of Jesus DID change everything.

I want us to re-visit 2 Corinthians 4:18 and consider ONE word in particular

2 Corinthians 4:18 ¹⁸as we LOOK not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

The word LOOK doesn’t mean a casual glance. It is as if I picked up a telescope and tried to bring something far away into focus and into view — The word implies intense examination — constant scrutiny — steady gaze.

Paul says — I have taken time — not to merely take a casual glance at spiritual things. But I’ve sat down and thought them through. I’ve examined them with my mind and heart till they came into clear focus  — and they have a tremendous effect on me — because when I’m gazing steadily at these unseen things — Jesus — His glory — His Kingdom — my afflictions became light.

EVERYTHING HAS CHANGED!

Some will say — Well Paul was just HOPING these things would be so. He talked himself into believing things that weren’t really true. Many ask, How can you know? After all — We only know things through the senses. Touch — sight — sound — smell — taste. How can you even begin to talk about looking at things not seen? Show me these unseen things. Show me God and I’ll believe in Him.

The Bible is really clear on this. There is only ONE way of knowing — FAITH! We say — Show me and I’ll believe. God says — Believe and I’ll show you.

Hebrews 11:1  Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

FAITH has to do with things that we can’t touch — see — hear — smell or taste. Faith imparts reality to those things which are not seen. Faith is the only way that we become the beneficiaries of all that Jesus accomplished in His death and Resurrection. And when we by faith in Jesus come into relationship and fellowship with the One, True and Living God, we are able to see and grasp the things of God and His His Kingdom.

By the power of the cross and resurrection these unseen things begin to exert influence over us — as if we actually saw them with physical eyes — actually discerned them with our natural senses.

ILLUSTRATION — Belief that a certain place exists causes me to get on a plane and go.  I may have never been there, but faith causes it to be real to me.  Columbus is a great example of this — his faith gave force and reality to what he believed

Now many here have believed the message of the cross and resurrection.

Mark 16:16 ¹⁶Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.

You believed — you took a hold — now it is real — no one can tell you otherwise — By faith I know that I know that I know!

Wishful thinking? No! I know! What I used to think was irrational — I now KNOW to be true by Faith in Jesus.

HUGE — Everybody BELIEVES — Everybody HAS FAITH in something. Some people put faith in men and what they say — Darwinism and atheism. And they act upon what man has told them. They don’t know if its really true — and yet they live like it is true — you can see them living as though there is no God — no heaven or hell — no eternity to face.

The Christian is someone who is putting faith in what they have heard from God. Once you never knew that there were two roads — one narrow, that leads to life, and only a few are on it; and one broad road that leads to death, and many are on that broad path. But now you know —and no one can tell you different.  You are saved and you know it —you are going to heaven and you know it.

THAT is what I mean when I say that the events of those few days nearly 2,000 years ago CHANGE EVERYTHING!

When you look around the world  today and see  death, destruction and depravity — you may feel powerless to CHANGE the status quo. But Jesus has started a revolution — He does change everything — one heart at a time.

Jesus changes everything — when you give your heart to Him!

2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

Put your faith in the Crucified and Risen Jesus!

Good Friday 2010

The Day That Death Meant Life!

This afternoon we are remembering the events of Passover, 32 AD. On that day things were not what they appeared to be. Men were about as wrong as men can get.  The Jewish leaders were wrong, the crowd was wrong, Pilate, the Roman governor was wrong. The world was as upside down as the world could be.

It was the quintessential tragedy! Pride and power; deception and manipulation; cruelty and cowardice; were all unleashed against an innocent man.

BUT — On that day so many things were not what they seemed to be. What appeared to be a shameful reality was not reality at all.  There was a story within a story. Behind it all there is truth — God’s truth. In the tragedy was purpose — God’s ultimate purpose.

FIRST — There was Pilate

Jesus was delivered by those who should have embraced Him. Jesus was delivered to Pilate, the roman governor, to be judged and put to death. As Jesus stood in absolute silence before Pilate.

In his political arrogance Pilate said —

John 19:10 ¹⁰So Pilate said to him, “You will not speak to me? Do you not know that I have authority to release you and authority to crucify you?”

But that’s as upside down as anything could be. Pilate — the pseudo judge — is judging the real judge. The man Pilate presumes to be judging is in fact God Incarnate — the Judge of all the earth!

Jude v14-15 “Behold, the Lord came with ten thousands of his holy ones, ¹⁵to execute judgment on all and to convict all the ungodly of all their deeds of ungodliness that they have committed in such an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against him.”

But on THAT day 2000 years ago everything is upside down.

Then — There was Barabbas

Barabbas — A man guilty of rebellion and murder lays in a dungeon awaiting execution. While an innocent man — who until recently was the most popular man in the country — is on trial for his life. The crowd is given a choice as to which one is to go free. They choose the murderer.

All seems wrong not the way it supposed to be. But on this day everything is upside down.

Then — they the wrong man was beaten

Jesus is tied to a post. Pilate orders him to be whipped. The Roman scourge was used to illicit confessions from criminals. They used a leather whip they called a flagram. On the end of it were balls of metal with pieces of glass and bone embedded in the whip.

The Romans were cruel and expert in their torture. The job of the torturer was to inflict as much pain as possible without killing the victim. The expertise lay in the mans ability to torture to the point of death before ceasing the cruel beating.

Jesus has no crime to confess! Does anyone know why. This seems all wrong.

THEY ARE BEATING THE WRONG MAN

Isa 53:5 NLT ⁵ But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed.

Then — there was the Scarlet Robe

Mat 27:28 ²⁸And they stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, ²⁹and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on his head and put a reed in his right hand. And kneeling before him, they mocked him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!”

ITS ALL UPSIDE DOWN.

Rev 19:11-16 Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. ¹²His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself. ¹³He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God. ¹⁴And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses. ¹⁵From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. ¹⁶On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords.

But for now Jesus wears this scarlet robe so that one day we might be robed in pure white — For now Jesus will wear a robe drenched with His blood so that we might be washed white as snow!

Then — There was the Crown of Thorns

Mat 27:29 ²⁹and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on his head and put a reed in his right hand. And kneeling before him, they mocked him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!”

AGAIN — This seems so wrong. Again — Everything is upside down.

But — beyond the reality of this inconceivable cruelty is the truth of what was really happening — the truth of what God’s purpose was in all of this.

THORNS are SYNONYMOUS with the curse that God pronounced upon man as a consequence of that first sin in the Garden of Eden. As the Roman soldiers in their cruelty jammed this thorns onto the brow of Jesus they were actually giving to us a picture of what was really happening — God was allowing Jesus to bear the CURSE of fallen mankind!

Jesus was crowned with our curse that He might give to us crowns — Imperishable crowns. Crowns of righteousness, crowns of life, crowns of glory!

And one day we will cast OUR crowns before Him because He bore THAT crown of thorns — our curse!

Separation For Our Reconciliation

Matthew 27:46 ⁴⁶And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

At that very moment Jesus bore the sins of the World. God the Father had laid upon Jesus the sins of us all! In that moment Jesus tasted that DEATH that we deserve — death meaning separation from God.

The Son of God passed into that outer darkness so that we might not.

2 Cor 5:21 ²¹For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

It is Finished Means It Has Begun

John 19:30 When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

It appears that Hate conquered love. It appears that Lies defeated Truth. But again — EVERYTHING IS UPSIDE DOWN ON THIS DAY.

On this day — It is FINISHED really means — It has begun!

When Jesus cried, “It is finished” it was not a cry of defeat — It was the shout of glorious victory. When Jesus cried, “It is finished” — He was declaring that God’s work of redeeming man from the power of sin and the penalty of sin was finished. NOW — Man can BEGIN to experience life in fellowship with God!

Jesus accomplished this work — there is no work that we can or could perform to be saved. All that we can do — all that we must do — to be redeemed from the power of sin is to believe in Jesus Christ and to make Him the Lord of your life. It is so simple that a child can do it; yet it is so sublime that the wisest of men cannot fully comprehend what is the length and the depth and the height of God’s love that prompted this glorious plan of redemption.

On that day more than 2000 years ago — things were not what they appeared to be. Men were about as wrong as men can get.  And where they were wrong most of all — what they did not get at all — was that this was a day when the DEATH of Jesus meant LIFE for man.

Palm Sunday 2010

The Lamb Presented – The King Rejected

Luke 19:28-48

Related Topics: Jericho; Journey From Jericho; Bethpage and Bethany; Jesus Leads the Way to the Cross; “Follow Me”; Zechariah 9; Fulfilled Prophecy; Jesus Riding the Donkey; Jesus: King of Love and Peace; The Courage of Jesus; Mount of Olives; Josephus; The Temple in the Day of Jesus; “Hosannah”; Jesus Bringing Salvation; Presentation of the Passover Lamb; Jesus “The Lamb of God; Jesus Rejected; “Day of Visitation”; Jesus Weeps over Jerusalem; Spiritual Blindness; Destruction Following Rejection; Destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD

From Jericho To Jerusalem

²⁸And when he had said these things, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem.

Jesus is beginning the final leg of His journey up to Jerusalem.

CRUCIAL — This last journey of Jesus up to Jerusalem had it’s beginnings back in Luke 9.

Luke 9:51 When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem.

He is coming from Jericho where he had met a short little thief named Zachaeus (Picture if you will, Danny DeVito).

Jesus led the way on this journey – he went on ahead. Jericho is approximately 18 miles from Jerusalem and is some 1800 feet BELOW sea level. Jerusalem, on the other hand, is approximately 3,000 feet ABOVE sea level. So the journey is a continuous uphill journey.

AMAZING — Some people are willing to walk uphill for personal gain — to get the girl — to get the promotion. Jesus is walking uphill to be beaten with fists; whipped by the Romans and nailed to a cross. Jesus is blazing ahead of the disciples — uphill the entire way — towards the cross.  This is a radical picture when thinking of His words, “If any man come after Me, let Him deny himself, take up his cross and follow Me.”

The approach to Jerusalem from Jericho is on the backside of the Mount of Olives. Coming from Jericho, you can not see Jerusalem until you get to the top of the Mount of Olives. On the wilderness side of the Mount of Olives there are two villages, Bethpage and Bethany. They are both just below the crest of the Mount of Olives on the wilderness side.  As they were approaching these two villages Jesus sent His disciples into the one village.

The King of Love and Peace

Luke 19:29-31 When he drew near to Bethphage and Bethany, at the mount that is called Olivet, he sent two of the disciples, ³⁰saying, “Go into the village in front of you, where on entering you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever yet sat. Untie it and bring it here. ³¹If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ you shall say this: ‘The Lord has need of it.’”

In the Gospel according to Matthew we are told that Jesus did this in order to fulfill the prophecy of Zechariah.

Zec 9:9 Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey,on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

³²So those who were sent went away and found it just as he had told them.

Mark’s Gospel adds an interesting detail

Mark 11:4-5 NKJV So they went their way, and found the colt tied by the door outside on the street,

There is a grammatical construction that describes the street’s turn — Kind of like a cul-de-sac. That kind of detail demands the necessity of an eyewitness here — Because of that most scholars believe that Peter was one of the two that was sent to get the colt.

³³And as they were untying the colt, its owners said to them, “Why are you untying the colt?” ³⁴And they said, “The Lord has need of it.”

They went into the village and found the colt just as Jesus had said. And when they were taking the colt they were asked what they what they were doing.

TWO POSSIBLE WAYS OF LOOKING AT THIS

1.) It would be like you go to the Roseville Auto Mall and grab a BMW X5 and a bunch of sales guys on the lot say – “What are you doing with the X5?” — and you say — “Hey, the Master has need of this!”And Because Jesus sent you — they say “Oh – well that’s O.K., then!”

2.)  Is that this final trip of Jesus to Jerusalem was carefully planned.

This was no sudden, impulsive action.  Jesus did not leave things until the last moment.  It would appear that Jesus had made an arrangement with the owner of the colt, and that “The Lord has need of it” was a pass-word settled on a long time before this moment.

Regardless of your view — By choosing to enter Jerusalem on a donkey Jesus was making a deliberate claim to be king, a deliberate fulfilling of the picture in Zech 9:9.

But even in this, Jesus underlined the kind of kingship which he claimed.

In the Middle East of Jesus’ day the donkey was not the lowly beast that it is in this country. It was noble. Only in war did kings ride upon a horse; when they came in peace they came upon an donkey. So Jesus by this action came as a king of love and peace, and not as the conquering military hero whom the mob expected and awaited.

The King of Courage

³⁵And they brought it to Jesus, and throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it. ³⁶And as he rode along, they spread their cloaks on the road.

There is no doubt a strange crowd here with Jesus at this moment.

Healed lepers are probably in the crowd; Blind Bartimaeus who He just healed.  No doubt Lazarus who had been dead is part of the crowd. There is a large crowd coming with Him.

³⁷As he was drawing near—already on the way down the Mount of Olives—the whole multitude of his disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen,

It is impossible to overstate the sheer courage of Jesus here. And His courage is tied to His love for you and me. You see, by this time there was a price on Jesus’ head.

John 11:57 NLT Meanwhile, the leading priests and Pharisees had publicly announced that anyone seeing Jesus must report him immediately so they could arrest him.

If Jesus had to make a trip into Jerusalem at all, it would have been natural — even prudent — for Him to have slipped in secretly and then hidden away in some secret place in the back streets. But he entered in such a way as to focus the whole lime-light upon himself and to occupy the center of the stage.  It is a breath-taking thing to think of a man with a price upon his head, an outlaw, deliberately riding into a city in such a way that every eye was fixed upon him. Think — William Wallace walking into the village on his horse after his wife was murdered — Only Jesus isn’t coming to wipe out the bad guys — He’s coming to DIE for the bad guys!

The King and the Cross

While the cross is foremost in the mind and heart of Jesus this was no doubt an exciting time this was for the disciples! They were aware of the prophecy of Zechariah. They thought that this was the moment when Jesus would establish His Kingdom. But Jesus had told them on a number of earlier occasions what was going to happen to Him when He reached Jerusalem.

Luke 18:31-33 And taking the twelve, he said to them, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished. ³²For he will be delivered over to the Gentiles and will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon. ³³And after flogging him, they will kill him, and on the third day he will rise.”

They were unable to understand these things.

Luke 18:34 ³⁴But they understood none of these things. This saying was hidden from them, and they did not grasp what was said.

It’s easy for us to be hard on these guys for not getting it — but let’s be honest — Hasn’t it been your experience that we don’t find it very easy to understand the things of the cross? The cross is an enigma to the natural man and to man’s wisdom. Self-denial and self-sacrifice NEVER make sense to our flesh.

The City of the King

They are coming up through Bethany and they are cresting the Mount of Olives. When you crest the Mount of Olives you see stretched out before you the city of Jerusalem. You see the Temple Mount, the East Gate and the magnificent Temple that was built by Herod. It is one of the most glorious vantage points in the whole world.

QUOTE: Josephus: The Wars of the Jews — Now the outward face of the temple in its front wanted nothing that was likely to surprise either men’s minds or their eyes, for it was covered all over with plates of gold of great weight, and, at the first rising of the sun, reflected back a very fiery splendor, and made those who forced themselves to look upon it to turn their eyes away, just as they would have done at the sun’s own rays. (223) But this temple appeared to strangers, when they were at a distance, like a mountain covered with snow; for, as to those parts of it that were not gilt, they were exceeding white. (224)

Josephus, F., & Whiston, W. (1996, c1987). The works of Josephus : Complete and unabridged (Wars 5.221-224). Peabody: Hendrickson.

At this time in history it is impossible for us to grasp what the city of Jerusalem and its surrounding areas looked like at Passover.  Virtually every inch of open ground near and on the sides of the Mount of Olives were probably covered with the tents and make shift camps.

QUOTE: ELLICOTT — We are not left without some data of the actual amount of the gathered numbers, as we have a calculation of Josephus based upon the number of lambs sacrificed (256,500), according to which it would appear that even at the very low estimate of 10 persons to each lamb the number of people assembled must have been just under 2.7 million without taking into consideration those that were present but incapacitated by legal impurities from being partakers in the sacrifice.

The population of Jerusalem would have swelled to just under half of the probable population of Judaea and Galilee.

So they crest the Mount of Olives and they see the Temple of the Living God, and their beloved city of Jerusalem. The one they believe to be the Messiah is with them, just as Zechariah prophesied, and they break forth into shouts of excitement and joy.

There is something about the physical environment in Israel that seems to enable sound to travel great distances.

EXAMPLE: The Amphitheatre in Beth-Shean can hold thousands of people. Yet you can sit on the edge of the stage and speak to the stands without amplification.

EXAMPLE: On top of the Herodian, outside of Bethlehem, you can hear the conversations of children 1 mile away!

With this incredible natural amplification of sound, when they crested the Mount of Olives, the shouts of this crowd would be heard in the city of Jerusalem.

At the upper end of the Temple Mount was the Antonia Fortress where the Roman troops were garrisoned, and where Pontius Pilate held court while in Jerusalem. He didn’t live there. He lived on the coast in Caesarea Maritima. He only came to Jerusalem at the feasts because they were times that were ripe for rebellion against the Roman presence in Israel. I can imagine that when this shout went up from the Mount of Olives that these Roman soldiers would have looked up to see what was going on — no doubt thinking — It’s already starting.

They would have seen the disciples laying their garments in the path of Jesus and laying their palm branches before Jesus who was riding on this donkey. But they also would have HEARD the cries of the disciples

THE LAMB PRESENTED — THE KING REJECTED

³⁷ ….the whole multitude of his disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen, ³⁸saying, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”

The King Rejected

When they were saying, Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! they were quoting from PSALM 118 which was believed by all to be a “MESSIANIC” Psalm (a psalm that looked forward to the coming Messiah).

HUGE — The section of the Psalm that they were quoting begins with the words

Psa 118:22-23 The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. ²³ This is the Lord’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes.

This is obviously a prophecy concerning Jesus Christ. The BUILDERS is a reference to the religious leaders of Israel who REJECTED Jesus. When Peter was on trial before the Sanhedrin (after the day of Pentecost because he was used by God to heal a lame man) he was asked:

Acts 4:7 “By what power or by what name did you do this?”

Peter responded to them by saying

Acts 4:8-12 ⁸Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers of the people and elders, ⁹if we are being examined today concerning a good deed done to a crippled man, by what means this man has been healed, ¹⁰let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead—by him this man is standing before you well. ¹¹This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. ¹²And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

Thus Peter identified Psalm 118 as a Messianic prophecy that was dealing with Jesus.

The next portion of the Psalm declares

Psa 118:24 This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.

HUGE — This passage is so often misused. You wake up in the morning and the sun is shining and you say — “Oh, this is the day that the Lord has made.” In a sense, that is right, but it is NOT what this passage is speaking about. The Psalmist was moved by the Holy Spirit to write of A SPECIFIC day — ONE SPECIAL DAY in all of history when God would fulfill His promise of a Savior.

On that specific day God would bring salvation to lost man. Matthew (21:9 ) and Mark (11:9) both tell us that the people were crying out HOSANNA — again a reference to the prophecy of Zechariah.

Zec 9:9 Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation…

Your King is here — riding on a donkey — brining salvation. THIS is THE day that the Lord has made

This was God’s special day in all of human history. This was the day that Israel had so long awaited.

The Lamb Presented

HUGE — This was also THE DAY when those who were coming to the Passover were required to present their sacrifices in the temple.

On this day they would present to the priests the lambs (260,000 lambs sacrificed) that they would be offering in Jerusalem. The priests would EXAMINE the lamb to see if it was without spot or blemish.

We remember what John the Baptist said in John 1 when he pointed at Jesus there in the Judean wilderness at the beginning of Christ’s ministry — behold THE Lamb of God -

Here is Jesus –-  THE Lamb of God - coming into Jerusalem fulfilling the prophecies of Daniel and Zechariah and Psalms on the very day that the lambs are being presented for sacrifice. Presenting Himself as the Lamb to be slaughtered for the redemption of Israel and all of mankind.

HUGE — The religious leaders knew exactly what was happening when the crowd broke out with those shouts — they knew that they were quoting a Psalm of the Messiah. That’s why they ordered Jesus to rebuke His disciples

³⁹And some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples.” ⁴⁰He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.”

THE DAY GOD CRIED

Luke 19:41-42 ⁴¹And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, ⁴²saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.

Jesus was coming to make peace between God and man — to reconcile man back to God.

Eph 2:14 For he is our peace,

Col 1:21-22 ²¹And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, ²²he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him,

Eph 2:13 But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.

2 Corinthians 5:18-21 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; ¹⁹that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. ²⁰Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. ²¹For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

HUGE — YOUR peace is dependent upon being at peace with God. UNLESS you recognize Jesus as the only way to be right with God and accept the forgiveness of your sins which is only available through Jesus, THEN you can NEVER have real peace. THIS DAY in LUKE 19 was the day on which God’s provision for the peace of Israel was being made. THAT is why Jesus WEPT over them

He wept over their BLINDNESS

Luke 19:42 KJV If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes.

Check it out guys — The donkey, the shouts of “Hosanna” — Your King has come….

NOT only that — 500 years earlier the prophet Daniel (9:21-25) had prophesied that the Messiah would come exactly 173,880 days (483 years x 360 days) from the going forth of the commandment to restore and rebuild Jerusalem. Artaxerxes gave that command on March 14, 445 BC. Using the Babylonian calendar of 360 days, and taking into account leap years, 173,880 days brings us to April 6, 32 AD — (10^th of Nisan) — the Sunday before Passover.

HUGE STUFF — God does give men SPECIAL opportunities and invitations. THIS was THE day of their visitation — it was THEIR day. These SPECIAL visitations from God can be so radical that you would think that it would be IMPOSSIBLE to walk away from them. Not so! Jerusalem was PHYSICALLY visited by the Son of God who performed RADICAL miracles and taught them His Word within their walls. BUT they rejected Him!

Amazingly — Jesus not only entered Jerusalem on April 6, 32 A.D., exactly 173,880 days from March 14, 445 B.C., but Daniel prophesied that Jesus would be rejected.

Dan 9:26 KJV And after….. shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself:

QUOTE: WORDSWORTH – Jesus is shedding tears as a man for that which He foretold as God

The reasons WHY Jesus wept

1.) Jesus WEPT because they were BLIND to the work that God wanted to do among them

I wonder how many times God weeps over OUR blindness. IF you and I only knew what God WOULD do for YOU. Jesus was weeping over LOST OPPORTUNITIES.

All ignorance is NOT excusable. When men CAN know the truth but REFUSE to know it, they are indeed GUILTY before God.

The issue is responding to the light that you are given.

But now they are hidden from your eyes

QUOTE: Matthew Poole — “First men shut their eyes against the things that belong to their peace, and THEN God hides them from them”.

2.) He wept because He could see ahead some 37 years.

He WEPT over the CONSEQUENCES of Israel having rejected Him.

He could see the magnificent Temple being burned. He could hear the screams of thousands of Jews being cremated inside of the Temple as they resorted to it as a place of defense. He could see the children being slashed and cut up by the swords of the Roman soldiers. He heard the screams of the women as they were being raped by the Roman soldiers. He saw Titus conquering Jerusalem in 70 A.D., killing nearly 1,000,000 Jews in one days battle

The Holy Spirit used the word WEPT = klaio, klah’-yo; to sob, i.e. wail aloud. Jesus just began to WAIL over their blindness and the fact that it would COST them peace with God and desolation

HUGE — Spiritual blindness not only leads to LOSING what God would want to do in your life. It ultimately leads to devastation and destruction. I am CERTAIN that even as Jesus wept over Jerusalem, he weeps over humanity today

Jesus had this compassion on people whose were NOT believers. These were people who were blinded by their own CRUELTY, SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS, STUBBORNESS and PRIDE

HUGE POINT — We know NOTHING of the heart of Jesus if we do NOT feel deep grief over the lost. The EXALTATION of Jesus and this GRIEF over the lost are the ONLY things that birth the enterprise of evangelism! It is this very absence of the compassion of Jesus that is behind the absence of evangelism

IF Jesus felt such things towards wicked people, THEN so ought His disciples. Listen to the words of men after the heart of God

Psa 119:136 KJV Rivers of waters run down mine eyes, because they keep not thy law.

Rom 9:2 That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart.

Luke 19:43-44 For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side ⁴⁴and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.”

Jesus told them that Jerusalem, with it’s glorious temple would be left desolate BECAUSE they “DID NOT KNOW the time of their visitation.” In the year 70 A.D. the Romans marched upon Jerusalem and TOTALLY destroyed it.

CLOSING APPLICATION: Jesus still comes to men and women today

He comes — not in a display of power that renders you helpless. He comes — not to barge in upon your life. Though He is the King of kings, He comes meekly, knocking on the door of people’s hearts waiting for an invitation to come in.

The purpose of His coming is to BRING SALVATION — To save you from your sins and to restore lives destroyed by sin — to bring peace WITH God and the peace OF God.

Jesus is coming to you TODAY

March 28, 2010 is THIS THY DAY. March 28, 2010 is the day of YOUR VISITATION. Will YOU say to Him, “SAVE NOW!! SAVE NOW!!”

IF today is the day of your visitation, DON’T MISS IT. If you do, one day you will wake up to find your life one day in utter ruins and find your life desolate

You might not feel that your life is a mess right NOW. But I’m sure that the Pharisees smirked at the thought of Jerusalem being utterly destroyed…. Especially when it didn’t come for another 38 YEARS! But IT CAME for Jerusalem, and it will come for you if YOU fail to recognize what could belong to YOU in THIS THY DAY!

Mark 1:14-15

BELIEVE THE GOOD NEWS

Mark 1:14-15 ESV 14Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, 15and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”

UNDER THE RULE OF GOD

KEY OBSERVATION
Mark tells us that Jesus was

“proclaiming the Gospel — Good News — of the Kingdom of God”

KEY INSIGHT:
There is more than one kingdom in the universe.

There is the Kingdom of God —

Characterized by LIFE and LIGHT

There is the kingdom of this world —

Characterized by DEATH and DARKNESS

KEY QUESTION:
Just what, or where, is the Kingdom of God?

KEY INSIGHT:
The Kingdom of God is wherever God is King.

IN LIGHT OF THAT I want us to see a very simple, yet very important truth that is set forth here -

KEY OBSERVATION
To be under the rule of God is NOT bad news.

It’s good news.

ILLUSTRATE:
The night I received the Lord thoughts like this rushed through my head –

“If you become a Christian — it is going of be the end of life – carry a 10 lbs. Bible, listen to horrible music, drink milk and go to bed at 8:00pm!”

But here was the deciding question — How can I fear the King of the Kingdom when He bears the scars of His love for me?

WOULD YOU NOTE WITH ME —
something that really is Good News –

Jesus doesn’t set up a bunch of religious hoops to jump through.

What He asks is two things

1.) REPENT

KEY INSIGHT:
“Repent” is from the Greek word Metanoia.

It literally means “a change of mind.”

KEY QUESTION:
What do we have to change our minds about?

PRIMARILY – We have to change our minds regarding how we live –

Until coming to Christ our lives are lived for self.

We set ourselves up as God.

CRUCIAL POINT:
If we want to be in the Kingdom of God — if we want to go to heaven — we have to go 180 degrees in the opposite direction of a life lived for self

THAT is what it means to REPENT

ILLUSTRATION:
If you want to go to New York you have to leave Sacramento.

You can want to go to New York all you want

But you will never get to New York unless you turn your back on Sacramento and leave Sacramento.

Repent is not a popular message.

But the same holds true for Heaven.

There needs to be a moment when you change the direction of your life.

If people end up forever OUTSIDE of the Kingdom of God it will be because they would not repent.

People will say — Christianity is pretty hard to believe — The Bible is hard to understand.

YES — There are some things in the Bible that are HARD to understand.

But REPENT and BELIEVE are not in that category!

I have shared the Good News with a lot of people over the years

You believe that Jesus lived – died and rose again. WHAT is keeping you from being a Christian?

I don’t want God telling me what I can or can’t do.

1.) REPENT

2.) BELIEVE THE GOOD NEWS

KEY INSIGHT:
The message of the Good News is this -

Jesus died in your place for your sins and three days later He came out of the grave.

THIS MORNING we CELEBRATE that EVENT!

This is not some early Spring get together in which we talk about the possibility of eternal life — the possibility of hope beyond the grave

This is the celebration of an EVENT in HISTORY that is supported by incontrovertible evidence.

NOW — BECAUSE of His Resurrection life we have a living hope.

CRUCIAL INSIGHT:
There is NO Good News if Jesus is not raised from the dead.

Listen to what Paul wrote in the 1st Century AD to a group of Christians who in a place called Corinth -

1 Cor 15:3-4; 14; 17 NKJV 3For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures….. 14And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. …. 17And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.

The death of Jesus is of no value to save us if Jesus is not risen.

You see the meaning of the cross is this –
God became man and paid the infinite price for the penalty of the sins of the world.

There He provided Himself as

Our SUBSTITUTION — wounded for OUR transgressions, crushed….

Our PROPITIATION — appeased the wrath of God that we deserve

Our EXPIATION — removal of the defiling presence and power of sin

Our REDEMPTION — By His blood delivered us sins penalty and power

Our JUSTIFICATION — “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

Our RECONCILIATION — >Colossians 1:21-22 And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, 22he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death,

The thing that validates Jesus as being God who became man to accomplish ALL of that — is His Resurrection.

If Jesus is still in the tomb

He is no different than Buddha or Mohammed

And He is powerless to save anyone from their sins.

Romans 4:25 KJV Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.

ILLUSTRATION:
The pre-electronic banking letters from the bank with check stamped – NSF

NOT RELIGIOUS

Jesus came and died for the sins of mankind and rose again for their justification.

ANY man or woman who is willing to

REPENT – turn form living for self and turn to Him and ask Jesus to forgive them

And BELIEVE the Good News, will have eternal life!

CRUCIAL INSIGHT:
That is not Religious Activity!

That’s an exercise of the heart!

* EXAMPLE:*
The thief on the cross –

He was mocking Jesus along with the other thief.

Suddenly – “Lord when come into your Kingdom, will you remember me?”

What at change of mind! (Repent)

THIS GUY could offer NOTHING in terms of Religious activity!

His hands were nailed to a cross.

He couldn’t take communion or be baptized.

He couldn’t do any of the things people think they need to do to go to heaven.

But in his heart he repented!

And in his heart he believed!

And what an amazing faith!

One man on a cross looked at another man on a cross and believed that the other man was a King with a Kingdom.

Jesus said, “You will be with me.”

“The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.”

Resurrection Day 2009 – What an awesome day to BELIEVE THE GOOD NEWS!

It can be the day that YOU experience the power of God to SAVE you.

Ephesians 1:18-22 ESV having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might 20that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, 21far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. 22And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church,

It can be the day that YOU go from DEATH to LIFE!

Ephesians 2:5 ESV 5even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—

Copyrights:

• The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®
  Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles,
  a division of Good News Publishers
  All rights reserved.
• Scripture quotations marked “NKJV™” are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
• Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996, 2004. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

Truly Lost – Truly Saved

Good Friday 2009

Cliché – a phrase or opinion that is overused and betrays a lack of original thought – a very predictable or unoriginal thing or person

We live in a world of Cliché. Especially in the contemporary church culture, where the greatest truths of the Christian faith have over time been reduced to over used phrases. The great declarations of the Gospel have become so cliché that even in the minds of the average church-goer they seem to be be so UN-original – So “worn out”. The great declarations of the Gospel have become so cliché that MANY church-goers distance themselves from using Gospel truths, “The Cross of Jesus,” to define their lives or their experience.

FOR MANY,

• BORN AGAIN – has become cliché for preachy /self-righteous / judgmental / church-going / right-wing hypocrites
• LOST – has become cliché for losing your way on the road to happiness
• SAVED – has become cliché for successful human efforts to change one’s emotional / social / relational or economic circumstances for the better.
• GOD LOVES YOU – has become cliché for “your really not a bad person”, “you can do whatever you want without consequence.”

ALL of these are GREAT and GLORIOUS truths – DIVINELY INSPIRED terms that God has chosen to use in describing the great demonstration of His love in the Cross and what it accomplishes in the lives of those who believe the Gospel

REALITY – The term GOSPEL is not cliché, n over-used word that has become meaningless. A branding for a sub-culture that needs to be re-invented. The Gospel is infinitely ORIGINAL because it is has its ORIGIN in God. The Gospel declares that at the crux of human history Jesus Christ hung on a tree. The CROSS of Jesus Christ is TIMELESS. The CROSS of Jesus Christ stands as the ONE THING that DEFINES:

• GOD LOVES YOU
• LOST
• SAVED

Matthew 20:17-18 ESV And as Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside, and on the way he said to them, 18“See, we are going up to Jerusalem.

INSIGHT:
You ALWAYS travel UP to Jerusalem. It does not matter which direction you come from. 2500 ft above sea level, Jordan Valley 600 feet below sea level

INSIGHT:
Mark adds a very striking observation:

Mark 10:32 ESV And they were on the road, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking ahead of them. And they were amazed, and those who followed were afraid. And taking the twelve again, he began to tell them what was to happen to him,

Speaking of this 700 years beforehand Isaiah 50:7 ESV said that “He set His face like a flint.”

These men were amazed and afraid because they were seeing in Jesus something that they had never seen before. The LOOK on His face, the PACE of His journey, the POSITION of Jesus relative to them – Walking out in front of them! YOU SEE, for Jesus, this trip to Jerusalem was MORE than a 2,600 foot uphill walk. Jesus was headed UP to the place of His agony.

In Matthew 17 ESV we have the account of the TRANSFIGURATION of Jesus – as the GLORY of His divinity shined through the VEIL of His humanity. There on that occasion Elijah and Moses both appeared with Jesus IN GLORY. In Luke 9:31 ESV, we are told that they talked with Jesus about His “decease” – literally His “exodus” that He would “accomplish” at Jerusalem

This very day must never become Cliché – We are gathering today to acknowledge the FACT that Jesus willingly and knowingly went to Jerusalem to accomplish something!

THAT HE WENT to the cross, DEFINES “God loves You.”

WHAT HE ACCOMPLISHED on the cross, DEFINES “LOST” and “SAVED”

WHAT HE ACCOMPLISHED on the cross, shows the utter ruin of man on so many levels, shows the utter completeness of our salvation on so many levels.

There on the cross Jesus APPEASED the wrath of God. (Propitiation)

1 John 4:10 ESV 10In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
1 Thes 1:10 ESV Jesus has delivered us from the wrath to come

The death of Jesus was SUBSTITUTIONARY – (or, as some used to call it, vicarious). His death was in our place solely for our benefit by way of His agony. Jesus took the penalty for our sins in our place so we do not have to suffer the just penalty ourselves. The wrath of God that should have fallen on us – and the death that our sins merit – fell on Jesus. This wasn’t something forced on him.

There on the cross Jesus accomplished the REMOVAL of our sin ( Expiation). When we sin and are sinned against, the Bible says that we are defiled, dirty, filthy, and unclean, but on the cross Jesus took away our sin so that we could be cleansed from the defiling presence and power of sin.
In 1 John 1:7 ESV we are told that the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.

There on the cross Jesus was VICTORIOUS over the power of Satan.

Col 2:13-15 13And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.”

On the cross Jesus seemed to have suffered the worst defeat in history, but in fact he was triumphing over Satan and demons by destroying any claim they had to you and me because of our sin. Jesus is the only Victor over Satan and demons, and in Jesus we can live free of demonic control.

There on the cross Jesus accomplished our REDEMPTION.

Titus 2:13-14 ESV “. . . our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness.”
Sin enslaves us and rules over us as a cruel taskmaster, much like the Pharaoh who ruled over God’s people in the days of Exodus. In that day, God crushed Pharaoh and liberated his people into freedom to worship Him. That event is a PICTURE of how Jesus liberated us from Satan, sin, and death on the cross. That was the day of our great Exodus.

There on the cross Jesus accomplished our JUSTIFICATION. ALL of us are by nature and choice guilty sinners. We have no right to stand before God and be declared righteous, but on the cross Jesus accomplished our justification through what has been called “the great exchange.”

Gal 2:16 ESV “a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.”
2 Cor 5:21 ESV “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

There on the cross Jesus accomplished our RECONCILIATION. The Bible declares that we were enemies of God and alienated from God.

Col 1:21-22ESV 21And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, 22he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him,
2 Cor 5:18 ESV All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself
We were so utterly lost that we had no clue as to how to LIVE. Even on that level the cross of Jesus saves us – as there we see in Jesus, hanging on the cross – the ultimate model of how we should LIVE.

Phil 2:4-8 ESV 4Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
1 Peter 2:21-23 ESV2 21For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. 22He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. 23When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.

As we partake of the bread and cup

Ephesians 3:14; 16-19 ESV 14For this reason I bow my knees before the Father.. 16that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith-that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge,

YOU KNOW – JESUS never talked about the cross without talking about the resurrection.
TODAY – we remember the HORROR of the Cross. The COST of accomplishing all that we have considered.
SUNDAY – we CELEBRATE the Resurrection. The GUARANTEE of what was accomplished. The VICTORY over death itself.

Copyrights:

• The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. All rights reserved.