4.11.09
Celebrating Jesus
God
provides for His people
This
weekend we celebrate the enormous gift that the Father has given to us in His
Son. We are not told to observe a
particular day in association with the resurrection of Jesus. In fact, Scripture is silent about the
subject. What we are told is that we
can actually participate in the resurrection power of Jesus, both in our
earthly lives, and being included in the great resurrection of the dead at the
return of our Lord.
The book
of Romans presents Jesus’ death and resurrection in the context of baptism and
the new life.
What shall we say then? Shall we
continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 Certainly not! How shall we
who died to sin live any longer in it? 3 Or do you not know that as
many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? 4
Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as
Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also
should walk in newness of life.
5 For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death,
certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, 6
knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of
sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. 7
For he who has died has been freed from sin. 8 Now if we died with
Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, 9 knowing that
Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has
dominion over Him. 10 For the death that He died, He died to
sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. 11
Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God
in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6:1-11
Indeed,
God has provided everything we need to live!
He cares so much for us, that He thought of everything! He thought of our peace, our happiness, our
health, our salvation, our heavenly home . . . He thought of the trials and
struggles we have in this life. He knew
we needed strength and hope.
In Jesus,
the Father has given us ALL THAT WE NEED to thrive! In the Old Testament He provided lambs; He
provided a sanctuary system so that people could learn about sin and death and
sacrifice and acceptance with God. But
in the Son, God has provided the ultimate Sacrifice! He has provided the ultimate Lamb to lead us
home.
[Amy
& Maya: “But the Lord is Mindful of His Own]
The
Suffering of Jesus
As you
probably know, by the time Jesus got to the cross, He was already bloodied and
bruised, and very weak. The scourging
that He received was extremely painful, and caused Him to lose a great deal of
blood. So, imagine having to carry/drag
a large wooden cross on your back through the streets of
And the
people lined those streets—many of them making fun of Him, cursing Him, kicking
Him as He passed. Surely the Son of God
was mistreated for our sakes, and for theirs.
Isaiah paints a vivid picture of Jesus, the Suffering Lamb.
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.
3 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.
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 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.
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.
7 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.
8 He was taken from prison and
from judgment,
And who will declare His generation?
For He was cut off from the land of the
living;
For the transgressions of My people He was
stricken.
9 And they[a] made His grave with the wicked—
But with the rich at His death,
Because He had done no violence,
Nor was any deceit in His mouth.
10 Yet it pleased the LORD to
bruise Him;
He has put Him to grief.
When You make His soul an offering for sin,
He shall see His seed, He shall prolong
His days,
And the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper
in His hand.
11 He shall see the labor of
His soul,[b]and be satisfied.
By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall
justify many,
For He shall bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore I will divide Him
a portion with the great,
And He shall divide the spoil with the
strong,
Because He poured out His soul unto death,
And He was numbered with the transgressors,
And He bore the sin of many,
And made intercession for the
transgressors.
Isaiah
53:2-12
Notice it
says that Jesus would see the results of the labor of His soul, and be
satisfied. Hebrews 12:2 tells that we
should be “looking unto Jesus, the author and
finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the
cross, despising the shame, and
has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
Jesus
endured the pain of the spikes that were nailed through His hands and His feet,
attaching Him to the cross. Jesus
endured the slanderous cursings of the crowd, and even one of the thieves who
was also hoisted up on a cross. Jesus
endured the scoffings, the sneers, the tauntings, the soldiers gambling for His
clothes. He endured the tremendous
weight of all of our sins that was crushing out His very life, and separating
Him from His Father.
Jesus
endured it all, for the joy that was set before Him. The joy of being with you and me
forever. All would be well one day. And that was enough. Still, He was on the receiving end of all
that condemnation—all that guilt and shame—because our sins were upon Him. He truly had moments of sheer horror, pain,
separation. And He asked the Father why
He was so far away…… Still, looking upon this scene, and knowing truly who He
was, it would have been very natural to ask the question, “WHY?”
[Maya:
“Why”]
What
it means for us
Is it
possible that you could reject Jesus even after all He has gone through for
you? Yes, it is possible. Because the very nature of love is not to
force—not to make you do something.
But if
you accept what the Son has done for you on the cross, you can talk with Him about
it. You can tell Him that you are
thankful that He bore your sins all the way to the cross. You can tell Him you’re sorry for putting him
on the cross. You can tell Him that you
don’t exactly know where to go from here, but you are willing to follow Him, if
He will lead you.
The
death/sacrifice of Jesus makes it possible for us to come before the Father as
though we had no sin. This is really
incredible. Jesus Himself stands before
the Father with us, as we pray, and Jesus and the Father agree that His
sacrifice is sufficient for us; that His blood has been shed for our sins; that
the righteousness of the Son stands in place of our sins. And we are acceptable to a holy Father.
And while
Jesus was on that cross, right before He said, “Father, into Your hands I
commit My spirit,” several incredible things happened. The Bible says that there was an earthquake,
the graves of some of the righteous were opened and the resurrected ones walked
into the city, proclaiming that Jesus is Lord!
There was
also intense darkness in the middle of the afternoon! And that’s not all! Luke tells us that the veil in the temple was
torn right down the middle from top to bottom, by an unseen hand! This was highly significant. It was God’s way of telling us that now we
can come directly to the Father through the Son! A new and living way! Jesus would continue to be the heavenly High
Priest, representing us before the Father.
The
Father and the Son want to spend an eternity with you. Jesus promised to be with you always, never
leaving you. But we can choose to reject
the gift. We can choose the squander all
that He is wanting to give us—hope, salvation, heaven, life.
[David:
“Over My Dead Body”]
The
hope and power of the resurrection
The Roman
soldiers were ordered to break the legs of the three men who were on the
crosses, because the Pharisees didn’t think it was right to keep criminals up
on a cross on Sabbath. So they had to
break their legs to prevent them from running away. Then they would continue to slowly die of
their wounds.
They did
this to the two thieves, but when they came to Jesus, they discovered that He
was already dead. So they didn’t have to
break the legs of the Savior, which was in direct fulfillment of Scripture. Exodus 12 contains the story of the Passover
lamb that was to be without blemish, and none of its bones were to be
broken. Jesus fulfilled this Scripture
completely. He was with fault, without
sin, without blemish or blight, He was pure and holy in His thoughts and
conduct, and even in His death none of His bones were broken.
A perfect
Sacrifice. A perfect Passover Lamb of
God.
Jesus was
taken down on that Good Friday afternoon, and placed in a garden tomb. Truly a time of sadness. The hopes of His followers were shattered. Talk about confusion! They all felt lost without Jesus.
He rested
in the tomb over Sabbath, and early on Sunday morning, two powerful angels came
and rolled away the large stone that was sealed over the entrance of the
tomb. JESUS WAS ALIVE IN RESURRECTION
POWER!!
And as
Jesus appeared to Mary Magdalene, to the two forlorn men on the road to Emmaus,
and to His disciples, NEW HOPE sprang to life in their hearts!! Jesus was alive!! And because He lives, we too can live!! Because Jesus has conquered sin and death and
the devil, WE CAN LIVE AS NEW CREATIONS, NEW PEOPLE! THERE IS HOPE FOR TODAY AND FOR
TOMORROW! THERE IS HOPE OF A BETTER
LIFE! THERE IS HOPE OF
AND THERE
IS POWER!! POWER TO HAVE A CHANGED
HEART! POWER TO LIVE A NEW LIFE! POWER OVER SIN AND SELFISHNESS! POWER OVER APPETITE THAT IS OUT OF
CONTROL! POWER OVER ADDICTION! POWER OVER SATAN HIMSELF!! POWER TO LIVE A NEW LIFE WITH OUR SAVIOR!! RESURRECTION POWER!! MORE POWER THAN YOU KNOW WHAT TO DO
WITH!!
JESUS HAS
RISEN INDEED!!
[Debbie,
Rachael, Christianna: “Arise, My Love”]
And all
the congregation said…………..Amen!
Hymn of
Response: #526 “Because He Lives”