The Hope of Resurrection (1 Cor 15)
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
Morning happy Easter you guys we are in First Corinthians this morning we typically uh as we have sermons we open up the text we walk through the text and that's what we're going to be doing this morning in 1 Corinthians chapter 15: 16 through2 uh if you have a blue Bible will be on page 560 and if you don't have a Bible at home please take that that's a that's a gift we want you to have the word of God at home uh the text will also be on the screen.
So my wife and I uh we uh used to watch this show called chopped uh it's a cooking show and it's pretty basic you got four chefs four professionals three rounds you have appetizer and if you have the worst dish guess what happens you get chopped you you guys are getting it all right then you got an entree round next dish last one who's not that good chopped then a dessert and if you win you get a cool $10,000 because it's the Food Network and they got they ain't got kind of budget to give you a lot of money.
But that's the gist of the show and we were watching this one time and this guy was clearly the best I mean his appetizer was on point they the judges they ate it they loved it goes the next round entree crushes it uh gets the dessert round his his opponent uh this uh woman she barely gets in kind of on a technicality she she gets into the dessert round and he decides in 30 minutes he's going to bake a cake and he I mean is just killing it he's an artist he's just he's got the flour it's going he's got the sugar and the eggs and all he's just going.
For it she's over there like sweating like this guy's baking a cake and I'm just I'm putting together I just got to get on the plate I just get get on the plate time goes before the judges they're excited because they've just they've seen how good this guy is all day long they sink their Fork into it they take a bite you know when I I know this personally when you make something that just it just didn't work and I've seen my wife she just she goes yeah did you try something different this time and it's just a kind way of saying what what happened they didn't do that they spit it out they go.
And he's mortified because he's just like what happened and then it bit takes a moment for them to collect themselves to get every crumb out of their mouth and then the one judge goes I I think you grab salt instead of sugar and then they do like the black and white slow-mo camera where he like thinks he's grabbing sugar but right beside it is salt and he just dumps a bunch of salt in it and he's devastated I think the judges are devastated he's had such a good day and he failed it's I mean and he loses.
Because a cake without sugar is not a cake he presented a pile of salty garbage and it left everyone disappointed today we are celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ that's what we celebrate that Jesus what we just sang about that Jesus was the tomb was empty and our Christian faith is built upon that reality if there is no resurrection that there there is no Christian faith it is it is a cake without sugar worse it's a cake infected by a salt mine like it's just.
If we don't have the resurrection we don't have Christian faith at all it is a devastating disappointment and that's what we're going to see today in First Corinthians that everything that we hope for in the resurrection that our whole faith is built upon this and without it we will be deeply we would be deeply disappointed so let me read uh the text and then we'll walk through this together verse 16- 20 for if the dead are not raised not even Christ has been raised.
And if Christ has not been raised your faith is feudal and you are still in your sins then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished if in Christ we have hope in this life only we are of all people most to be pied but in fact Christ has been raised from the dead the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep let's pray heavenly father I pray that you'd help us see the power of resurrection and what that means.
For us that we might not leave here this morning unaffected by the truth of your Gospel that it might PE Pierce our hearts and it might lead us to worshiping you delighting in you in faith we ask this in Jesus name amen all right so we typically preach through books of the Bible we've been in Philippians for a few months which means when you're preaching through books of the Bible you're able to kind of know the context of what we've been walking through.
But today's different we're jumping into First Corinthians so let me give a little bit of context for this passage uh Corinthians 1 Corinthians is a letter uh that one of Jesus's followers wrote to a Church uh in a city uh in Greece called Corinth so this is uh inspired Scripture that God used his servant Paul to communicate his truth to this Church in that context and when you read a few verses before this in chapter 15 what you see is is that this Church believes in the resurrection of.
Jesus Christ like he walks through that Jesus died for our sins which is what we celebrated on Good Friday that because of our sin that has to be paid for and Christ went to the cross that Jesus walked out of the Tomb the tomb was empty that there are 500 plus people who witness the resurrected Christ you can see that this Church clearly believes this just as Paul clearly believes this but when you keep reading what you start to see is is that.
While they believe that Jesus did rise from the grave there's some people in this Church that are struggling to believe that there's a future resurrection and that's what's being addressed here and if you read the Scriptures you see that there's a future resurrection that one day uh God is going to Jesus is going to come back and he's going to make all things new that heaven will descend down to earth and he will radically recreate this Earth and when that happens his Church God's people will be bodily resurrected to glorified bodies we will live with.
God forever that's the truth that he's talking about and it seems that some people in this Church are struggling to believe this when he says in verse 16 for if the dead are not raised that's what he's talking about if there is no future Resurrection not even Christ has been raised he ties the two of those together that Christ Resurrection precedes the future resurrection and these are bound together to deny one and to deny the other they are linked together if you have Christ's Resurrection God's people will be Resurrected some of you know this.
Because you've seen this that if you play the song Mr Brightside by The Killers which those who are laughing have seen it if you play that song I will come alive one precedes the other that's going to happen it happened at a wedding a few years ago and it's just kind of keeps happening you play that song and I come alive and I'm going to sing every line of that song and if I'm not there just to be honest there will be another 35-year old white guy who steps in and just chants and sings that song it happens.
Listen I mean everyone's got their era right you Boomers you got Don't Stop Believing you know you got September by Earth Wind and Fire my wife and I for her birthday were at a jazz club for her birthday they played earthwind and fire they played September you saw people just grooving that one precedes the other that's what's Happening Here Resurrection precedes future Resurrection the two are bound together and that's what he's trying to help them see so clearly here.
Verse 17 he continues he says and if Christ has not not been raised your faith is feudal and you are still in your sins then those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished so he shows that Resurrection is at the heart of the Gospel that that if Christ doesn't rise from the grave everyone stands condemned everyone stands condemned he's trying to help them see that if you don't have Resurrection you you don't have salvation we have to keep the cross and the resurrection tied together that's what Paul in another letter that he writes another Scripture that he writes to the book of in the Book of Romans chapter 4 he says it will be.
Count un to us who believe in him who rais from the dead Jesus our lord who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification these are tied together that his death covers our Rebellion the blood that that he shed on the cross is for our sins but if he doesn't rise from the grave we're not saved I the picture here is We Stand condemned because of our sin that we are locked in a prison on death row and we stand condemned.
Jesus enters into the courtroom before the judge while we are in prison he says no no no I I'll take his place I'll take her place I'll take her place in the electric chair I'll take his place on the cross that's the picture here so he he takes the punishment for our sin but if the resurrection doesn't happen we we're not free we're not alive and the resurrection is the key that unlocks the prison that allows us to walk free and to take off the prison garments to put on uh his righteousness that's the picture these are tied together we are not saved.
If he does not walk out of the Tomb so he's trying to help them see the importance like this is how important Resurrection is and then we get to verse 19 which is we're going to spend most of our time he says if in Christ we have hope in this life only we are of all people most to be pied I want to take a look at this from a few different angles the first here if there is no Resurrection that's both Christ's Resurrection.
But also the future resurrection that awaits if there is no Resurrection we as Christians are to be the most pied it's us there's a there was a French mathematician philosopher his name was blae Pascal from four centuries ago which we're pretty fertile Church if you're having children and you have looking for baby names Blaze is got to be at the top of your list it's pretty awesome The Blaze Pascal came up with uh a defense of Christian faith because he was a Christian and it is endured.
For centuries still very popular argument today and it's called Pascal's wager and here here's the gist of it he says you should put your faith in Christ and you should live like a Christian if you are right you gain eternity with God in heaven but he says if we're wrong I if God doesn't exist then you know what you lived a good life you're a good person get good morals people thought well of you you lived a nice life so it's a safe beted.
So put your faith in Christ because if you don't put your faith in Jesus and you're wrong you get hell so don't do that put your faith in Jesus and if we're right we get heaven and if you're wrong then you lived a pretty good life that's no harm no foul either way Jesus is a safe bed that is a argument that is endured I'm sure it's a still in chain emails and Facebook posts and YouTube I'm sure Tik tokers are doing it like that is a common thing that gets uh that is still told.
Today here is why why Pascal misses the point when it comes to this passage he misunderstands the Christian Life if he believes that the life that we live in Christ because of the Resurrection hope that we have is this nice quaint life he misses it the Christian life because of the Resurrection is one of radical obedience to Christ if God loves us so much that he came from heaven and he sought us and he conquered death for us and walk out of the grave and invites us into the future hope that awaits Us in the resurrection that changes everything and Paul believed that deeply the the the the man who wrote this letter planted churches.
And preached the Gospel and he was beaten for it flogged tortured spit upon rejected at one point Shipwrecked and eventually beheaded that's not a nice quaint life that's that's not a that's not a nice good moral life where everyone just thinks well that's not it at all if we believe in the resurrection that awaits us because Christ walked out of the Tomb that changes how we live we live in light of that completely it's not this nice good little simple life.
If we're living the life that we're supposed to because of Resurrection hope the rest of the world looks at us and says Ah I think they're better uses of your time I think you should make better life choices because really I mean if Jesus didn't rise from carrying one of's burdens praying for one another caring for one another that's a lot of energy and if Christ didn't walk out of the Tomb and Resurrection hope isn't awaiting me I I'm not doing that I don't want to serve others I don't want to give myself away to other people that's not how I want to spend my time I I want to really take the logic of.
What Paul says to eat drink and be marry for tomorrow we die I mean that that's if if if if Jesus didn't rise from the grave and we just die and then we're done then I've got plenty of other things I'd like to do that's the argument he makes later in chapter 15 he's continuing this argument of Resurrection hope and he makes the argument he says why are we in danger every hour it's like if we're if if Jesus didn't rise from the grave we don't have the hope of future Resurrection.
Then why are we in danger every hour he says I protest Brothers by my pride in you which I have in Christ Jesus our lord I die every day which means he is dying to his own desires for the sake take of being obedient to the call that he has in Christ and he says what do I gain if humanly speaking I fought with beasts at Ephesus the trials that he faced at Ephesus and then he goes if the dead are not raised.
Let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die he's like I'm not I'm laying on the lime because of the Resurrection hope and others that need to see that Resurrection hope and if that's not true then then let's just let's just live it up for now so I think Pascal misses it reality we will be completely devastated if there is no future Resurrection because the picture of Resurrection hope the picture of what awaits us of Heaven on Earth is so wonderful.
And so beautiful it's so amazing we Bank all of our hope in that reality some of us have got to break from our minds the idea that heaven is just this disembodied experience where we float in the clouds and there's hyns on hyns on hyns for thousands of years that's we we have to think bigger when we come to the Scriptures on this no Heaven comes to Earth and he makes all things new and it's a picture of Eden restored it's a picture of life with.
God doing the things that God has called us to do with our maker and his presence it's beautiful and it's wonderful and it's glorious and we can't see that so we just we we were missing it how many of us are just so tired of being physically in pain the physical Pains of this life like I I've struggled with chronic back pain for eight years and there's some days where it's okay and some days that are better and then some days that ain't good and in some of those days.
When it's not good I'm just reminded us like praise God I've got a resurrection that's coming praise God this is this shell of a body is not what I'm going to have for eternity whe there one day it be a pain where I don't wake up and my my back doesn't hurt some of y'all feel that one day there's a day aren't you tired of the physical Pains of this life there's a reality coming where you don't have that anymore aren't you tired of the struggles with mental health with depression with anxiety with mental health disorders there's a day coming where you exist in the presence of your.
God and you're not anxious you're not worried you're at peace There Are No More Tears there's only joy there's only eternity of endless joy and peace that awaits you aren't you tired of the struggles of this present life aren't you tired of the work that you put in day in day out and you just don't see the fruit of your work I mean that that's that's the the curse of work this side of the Fall God created work it was supposed to be good.
But in Genesis 3 it says you work and you will get thorns and thisel that is agricultural language for you will work and strive and you will not see a harvest aren't you tired of put in the work you've tried so hard in your career you've tried to do this you've tried this project and it's never works out like you want it to there is a day coming in the new heavens and the new Earth well you will be doing the work that.
God has gifted you to do I don't know what that's going to be but my guess would be it is the way that God has designed you to use your gifts to contribute to this perfect harmony in the new heavens and the new Earth that awaits you and it's beautiful and it will bear fruit it'll be fruitful labor how many of us are tired of broken friendships broken friendships painful family Strife infighting people that just don't they just suck the life out of you and don't give you life how many of us are tired of that there is a day coming.
When you will have perfect fellowship with one another then be family members who belong to Jesus right now you just aren't on speaking terms with but one day you'll hug each other and you'll hold each other and you'll love each other perfectly because there will be no sin there'll be friendships where I mean some of us thinking we some of us are nostalgic for days of old man I loved it when I had these friends in this period of time and I loved that night man that night with our friends and our family was just.
So wonderful and that right there that the best version of what friendship what relationship ship can be in this life is a pale it's a black and white grainy old photo uh version of the HD in color ol I don't know 4K whatever the newest and we we've got like a LCD or the one that it doesn't matter we the nicest picture it's a poor picture of what awaits us you will have perfect friendships with other people aren't you tired of never feeling like you get rest in this life it's like I sleep 12 hours a night on the weekend and I go on vacations I just I don't ever feel caught up I don't.
Ever feel rested and there's a day coming when you will have perfect rest you will enter into rest and you will be restored you will be refreshed in ways that our minds can't possibly begin to understand I could go on and on with example after example after example that shows the hope of Resurrection that awaits Us and how wonderful and how glorious it is so when people pick up Pascal's argument it's just like well you know if we're wrong no harm no foul it's like I don't know what the heck you're talking about no way that that's what I'm going to miss out on all of my hope is there like at this this life.
Is so it this world is so broken and it's so short and it's so fleeting there's how many billionaires and celebrities do you have to hear their stories of just like I just never wasn't enough money and I don't know just I I'm not quite satisfied they're the most successful beautiful rich people in the world and they're miserable by the masses how many of those stories do you have to hear that you cannot we cannot I cannot maximize enough joy out of this life right.
Now I can't do it it's never going to satisfy me so if we're wrong if if we're wrong about the resurrection we we are most to be pied we should be devastated because that reality is far superior and far better than anything this world could possibly touch but I have some good news he did rise from the grave and he says in verse 20 but in fact Christ has been raised from the dead but in fact Christ did walk out of that tomb the resurrected savior sits at the right hand of.
God the father now Christ did rise from the grave the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep and the language of first fruits as agricultural language it's farming it's the first of the Harvest which means that there's a whole bunch of harvest left so Christ the first fruits the first one to rise precedes all of those who have placed their faith in Christ Christ who one day we will rise to and if Jesus did rise from the grave and there is this wonderful Eternal glorious reward that awaits us.
Then the resurrection Changes Everything Changes Everything when you realize that the best life is not the one that we have right now but the one that awaits us then we live for that as opposed to trying to maximize Joy here right now because that's far better if if Elon Musk came to you right now with an ironclad contract and said you will intern me for intern for me for five years and it's hard work but at the end of five years you've got1 billion dollars waiting.
For you every one of us takes that deal every one of us takes that deal it's like yeah it's going to be hard but man that's what awaits me I'm all in and what we have in the resurrection and Eternity is far superior to that it's better it's better and the problem is we just are so convinced of the pleasures of this world we try to ring every ounce of pleasure out of here and now I love what CS Lewis once wrote he said.
If you read history you will find that the Christians who did the most for the present world were precisely those who thought most of the next it is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that we've become so ineffective in this he's like the Christians of old like they their their head was there and they lived in light of that and we are we're not we're forgetting the resurrection that awaits us and the new heavens and the new Earth that awaits us and it all how many many of us all of our best efforts go into purchasing vehicles that will end up in a junkyard one day buying and beautifying homes.
That will be torn down one day how much of our best efforts go to maximizing our lives right here and now the promise of Resurrection changes everything it should radically alter the way that we live but here's the problem some of us are hedging our beds some of us are putting a little bit of Our Hope On Christ and Faith but I I I also got to put a little My Hope here in the things that I can get in this life we're hedging our bets a little bit of Hope in Christ a little bit right here with the life that I've got right here.
Now and maybe Easter is that for you that it's like this is my way to just put a little bit more on Christ and hedge my bed a little bit more here but the but what you're planning to do is walk right out of here change go back to a life where you're just going to put a lot of your more of your hope here in this life and that's never going to satisfied and I here's the deal I think you know that like deep down I think we I think we know that I I think there's a part of us that we've just we've we've tried.
So hard to make this life work we've tried so hard to to build things here to to build a happy life in this uh we we've tried to maximize Joy my question have you ever felt satisfied has it ever been enough I think you know this I think there's part of there's something inside you that longs for something greater I think there's something inside you a restlessness for something greater and you've tried all these things and it never has satisfied I love what CS Lewis has to say about this he says.
If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy the the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world I want to read that one more time if I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world you weren you weren't made for this world he continues he says if none of my Earthly Pleasures satisfi it that does not prove that the universe is a fraud probably Earthly Pleasures were never meant to satisfy it.
But here he this but only to arouse it to suggest the real thing what he just said was is that there are some things in this world in this world that are pleasurable if you have a really good steak and a glass of wine or juice or whatever whatever whatever what the best meal you can imagine it's actually good but it never quite satisfies and the reason is because that that's a foretaste that's a picture of a greater Feast that is coming.
So every Earthly pleasure that is actually good is just meant to arouse the greater Pleasures that await and to put all of our hope there he goes on to close it out he says I must keep alive in myself the desire for my True Country which I shall not fine till after death I must never let it get snowed under or turned aside I must make it the main object of life to press on to that other country and to help others do the same some of you have been feeling this.
For years you've been feeling this it's like I don't feel home in my body I don't feel home here I don't feel home I I just don't feel like this is all it's supposed to be some of you have given yourself to toys and to Amazon purchases and to Hobbies into makeovers and career changes and friends and spouses and children and gone headlong thinking any of these things are going to satisfy and they're not supposed to because this is not our home those are all pale pictures of a far country that awaits us and that far country is glorious it is wonderful and hope of Resurrection is that.
God would lift up our gaze to not look at this life and to not put hope here but to put our hope in the perfect life that Christ lived to see that our sin was paid for on the cross and trusting in his sacrifice and to believe that Christ walked out of the Grave to secure for us an eternity with him in that far country every ounce of energy and hope that we have has to be there and my hope this morning is that you wouldn't leave and go back to a life where you're trying to find pleasure here.
But you would put all of your hope there but it comes through placing your faith in Christ that far country is greater and my hope and plead this morning is that you'd see it that's the hope of Resurrection that's the hope of what Jesus did when he walked out of the Tomb My Hope Is that you'd see it let me pray heavenly father I pray that you might help us see what your Resurrection did for us that we might stop chasing after lesser things in this life that we might put all of our hope and the life that is to come and that might change the way we live.
Now that might for some people mean right now you need to confront them where they are at and and compel them God I pray that you help them see I pray that you'd help them see that this life is not worth living for that if we put our hope in this life it's never going to be enough and that right now that they would Place their faith in you and they would surrender to you God I pray if there are Christians in this room that are struggling that you'd help the hope of Resurrection come alive and that that might change each of us the way that we live until we reach that far country with.
You we ask this in Jesus name amen we're getting ready to have a baptism baptism is a picture of faith in Christ it is a picture of someone who saw their sin and realized I've messed up and I've sinned against a holy and perfect God and I want to trust in what he did on the cross for me that he's paid for my sin and I believe that he rose from the grave and because of that I get to have a new life in Christ until I reach that far country you're not saved by what happens in these Waters it's a picture of the Salvation that has already happened in someone's life as they enter.
Into the baptism Waters and they're placed under the water it's a picture that they were dead in sin but they're now alive in Christ and they've been washed by Jesus and our brother Evan Bud gets to be baptized here in a moment I want to read his testimony and his words before he enters into the waters.
Easter Sunday
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you. and his mom found a took a picture of him and put it on myspace which I'm so glad that my myspace photos did not end up on the internet forever in the form of a meme because those days nah not at all and Brian that's not even his real name his name is Kyle and he took that photo on the right as a joke for a yearbook photo as the yearbook they didn't even let him use it his friends got a hold of it and put it on reddit and boom these guys became for the last decade viral sensations all right they didn't choose to be but this is what they're known for and the internet I don't know if you know this is not a kind place it's not a place where you go for warm and fuzzies it's a very cruel place and scumbag Steve is what he was known for and I'll just show one of the cleaner means I could find for scumbag Steve grandpa gets surgery steals pain meds so I don't know if you caught that he looks like the guy that would steal pain meds from his grandparents that's not very kind that's pretty rude and then we've got bad luck Brian only Facebook friend his mom cyber bullied which means he has one friend on Facebook and it's his mother and she belittles him and makes fun of him all right so that the internet's a cold place right but this is what happens like people get known for things and it sticks with them and these guys are forever cemented as a legacy on the internet as these individuals even though they didn't choose this in the first place I want to talk about somebody who got mean before it was cool today and his name is Thomas so Thomas one of the disciples that's a painting of him we don't know if that's what he looked like there's a few renditions but that's the one I chose for us Thomas was one of the disciples he was an apostle of Jesus when Jesus commissions out his church to go and make disciples Thomas goes and takes the gospel to India he was the first missionary to India he went as far south as Chennai India that's what was one of the most southernmost cities in India and there are churches that exist in India today that trace their history back to Thomas that's incredible there's a gospel movement that's happening in India right now and it's been slowly growing for 2,000 years because Thomas was obedient to the Great Commission and he planted churches all the way in India but guess what if you have any church background that is not how you know Thomas if you have church background at all how do you know Thomas what is he known for it's exactly right doubting Thomas that is how Thomas is known and you know what Chet found a meme this week for Thomas that was on the internet already says hey Thomas do you think Christians will ever appreciate that you are actually a person of great faith I doubt it but it's not fair it's not like the like one moment of faithlessness has cemented his legacy for 2,000 years as the one who doubts right like Simon Peter Simon's original birth his birth name was Simon Jesus gives him the name Peter which means rock which means that his nickname is the rock how cool is that but Peter wasn't always faithful he denied Jesus three times the night that he was arrested and we don't call him denying Simon that's not how that works we call him Peter but poor Thomas is one moment of faithlessness and that is how we remember him as doubting Thomas I want to look at this I want to look at this story that comes from the first Easter today because I think it provides a lot of hope for us I think that Thomas actually is a beautiful picture of the gospel so I'm going to walk through this together and and be encouraged in our faith as we walk through it so let me pray for us and then we will get going I'm thankful for the goodness of the gospel that brings hope that brings joy that brings joy that brings joy that brings joy that brings joy that eternal life that brings joy that brings eternal life that brings joy that brings joy that brings joy that brings joy that brings joy that brings joy that brings joy that brings joy that brings joy that brings joy that brings joy that brings joy that brings joy that brings joy that brings joy that brings joy that brings joy that brings joy that brings joy that brings joy to God that brings joy that brings joy that brings joy that brings joy that day, that first Easter morning. So, Mary Magdalene and the other women go to the tomb. The reason they go to the tomb on the first Easter morning is because they're bringing spices.
They're basically perfumed. They're taking care of the body of Christ. They get to the tomb, and it is open, and it is empty. And they go, and they tell the other disciples, and they're a little bit incredulous. They really can't believe what is happening. Two of them sprint towards the tomb.
And this is recorded in John's Gospel, and I think it's funny that he decided to say that he was the faster one. So they're having basically a race there. He's the faster one. He beats them there. Then Peter shows up.
They see the tomb is empty. While this is going on, Mary Magdalene has the first encounter with the resurrected, glorified Christ. And it's beautiful. It's a beautiful story. A little bit later on, two of the followers of Jesus, we don't know who they were, but they are on their, they're on a, going towards the town, Emmaus. And as they're going there, Jesus just walks alongside them.
And they can't tell. Jesus is kind of shielded their ability to see who he is. And they have a whole conversation. They get back. They sit down. They continue.
Jesus points to the Old Testament, says, this is what it spoke of, Christ. And then he reveals himself. And then he just disappears. Which is what kind of happens. Post-resurrection, Jesus appears and disappears in multiple places. Then the disciples are huddled in a room together.
The door is locked. And then Jesus just appears before them. And this is a joyous occasion. Finally, the disciples get to see Christ. He doesn't bring shame upon them for abandoning him, which is what they did when he was arrested. He brings peace.
He brings this joyous moment. That is where we pick up in verse 24 when it says, Now Thomas, one of the twelve, called the twin, which, by the way, that was his nickname, the twin, was not with them when Jesus came. Man, what a bummer. Like that he missed out on this unbelievable first encounter with all the disciples. Thomas isn't there. We don't know why he's not there.
He could have gone out to get dinner. We don't know. But that had to be a huge disappointment. Like if I took some people, if I took some friends to a ball game, and I said, guys, I'm going to go, I'm going to get some hot dogs and some drinks. I'll be back. And then I come, I get my arms full, and I'm heading back, and I get back to my seats, and all of a sudden they're buzzing with excitement, and they're giddy.
I'm like, what happened? What did I miss? And they said, listen, you won't believe this. Peyton Manning just came and sat down with us. Like he sat in your seat, and dude, he is funny. He is awesome.
We took pictures together. We exchanged Numbers. We are boys now that would crush me. I'm a huge Peyton Manning fan. I love the Colts. Like that would be awful for me.
I would be so deeply disappointed that I missed out. And that's not, that has even come close to the situation that Thomas is facing. He has missed out on this. And it picks up in verse 25. It says, So the other disciples told him, We have seen the Lord. But he said to them, Unless I see in his hands the Mark of the nails, and place my finger into the Mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.
Now, when it says at the very top there, when it says the disciples told him, the phrase told in the original language in the Greek is not just a one-time event of telling. This is a continual retelling. They were telling him over and over, which probably means they were trying to convince him, Thomas, you don't understand. We saw his wounds that were healed. We saw his glorified body. It was glorious, Thomas.
You have to believe us. And it's not like Thomas was a stranger to them. They were friends. They spent three years together, ministering under Christ. Like he trusted them. But he hears this, and he says, No.
No, unless I can see it for myself. Unless I can place my hands in his wounds, I will never believe. And that begins, the nickname that has endured for a long time, of doubting Thomas. Now, it's not a complete portrait of Thomas. Not even in the Gospel of John. You get to John 11, you get to see a story about Thomas that's really cool.
Now, the way that the Gospel of John is written is that the bulk of the Gospel of John takes place in a few weeks. It's mostly the back end of Jesus' ministry leading up to the cross. So this story in John 11 really is just a few weeks before all these events that happened with the death and resurrection. And Jesus tells his disciples, We're going to go back to Judea. That's where Jerusalem is. We're going to go back there, and the disciples say, No.
No, Jesus. It is way too hot there. Like, you will get stoned if you go back. Like, they're trying to convince Jesus, We're not going. And Thomas, in the middle of that, it says in verse 16 of chapter 11, So Thomas called the twin, said to his fellow disciples, Let us also go, that we may die with him. Right?
He says, listen, I don't... If Jesus says we're going, we're going. If we're going to go, then we're going to die with him. That is unbelievable courage in the midst of a lot of uncertainty. And that was just a few weeks before these events here. So, what happened to Thomas?
What happened to Thomas? That not only did he abandon Christ with the other disciples when he was arrested, but we have this story here, where he ends up not believing that he is resurrected. What's going on there? Well, we see it is doubt. I did read some commentaries. I heard some people kind of say, Well, what Thomas is actually doing, it's not really doubt.
And the overwhelming evidence is like, No, he absolutely is doubting here. We don't know the reasons why. We can speculate a little bit. But I want to bet there's some reasons that we also can resonate with as well as the reasons why he is doubting this. As we look at them, I think it makes Thomas very relatable to us as Christians. I think one of the more obvious ones is that this is a little bit of a skeptical doubt.
This is some skepticism that Thomas is facing, that the idea that Jesus rose from the grave, it's hard for him to believe. That could be a possibility. What happens is, is that we look back at the Bible times, and we like to think that because we are like this side of the Enlightenment, so much smarter. We have new understandings of science, and morality, and all kinds of things. This is just something, this is superstitious things that people would believe back then. They weren't really skeptical back then.
Listen, that is ahistorical nonsense. There was absolute skepticism about this. Just because we have the Internet doesn't make us all that much more smarter. In a lot of ways, we're not that much smarter. Like these kind of guys, they could memorize whole books of the Bible. We can barely read an article on the Internet for a minute without getting distracted.
Squirrel! Like, just scroll to something else. Like, they're not stupid. They had skepticism. It took on different forms. Skepticism is really baked into the fallenness of our humanity.
It's what we've always done. Part of this could be Thomas' skepticism and the idea that Jesus was really alive. You know, we see when Paul is on mission, and he's traveling through Athens, Greece, he's meeting with different philosophers and thinkers, and he's trying to convince them of the gospel, convince them of Christ, and they're tracking until he mentions the resurrection. And when he mentions the resurrection, it says they mock him at that idea. It's like, no, that people don't rise from the grave. There might have been some skeptical doubt in here.
Skepticism has always been with us. It's something that if we are honest as Christians, that we face. Thomas certainly did. That's us. Like, we want evidence. We want proof that we can see, that we can touch, that we can measure, that we can taste.
It's right in front of us. That's always been with us. Maybe that's you. Maybe, as you've encountered, the stories about Jesus in the past, this call to faith, even the miraculous events of the Bible. It's just been something that you don't want to, you can't wrap your head around. And if you couldn't see it, you couldn't verify it for yourself.
If you can't measure it, if you can't test it, it's just not something that you want to believe. It's superstitions, and it's not worthy of your life. I think there might be some skepticism bowed up in Thomas. I think also, this could be the result of some hopes that were absolutely crushed when all this happened. That sometimes doubt arises from, crushed hopes. And I think it's possible that would have been what Thomas was feeling.
It's clear from the Gospels that when you read them, that they were expecting Jesus to be a political Messiah. It's clear from the Gospels when you read them that what they were expecting was Jesus to come in and to establish a new rule and reign, a new Jewish state where they would kick out the Roman occupiers, and that Jesus would be this political king and figure. Like when they're shouting Hosanna on Palm Sunday as he's coming in the city, it's this expectation that he's going to deliver this political revolution. And when Jesus finally is crucified and dies, the political movement is over.
Their Messiah was done. And what happened is that Jesus was a little bit of a Messiah of their own making. And that happens with us as well. That sometimes we have a Messiah of our own making. That we have expectations for God and what he should do for us. We're not immune to that.
And when things don't work out the way we want them to, if God doesn't make the things in our life happen the way that we want them to, we get crushed. Like when you don't get the job that you've been shooting for for years. When you don't get the second date or you don't get the spouse that you are seeking. When you don't get the kids that you want. The life of the kids that you want. All the way down to losing loved ones which is incredibly difficult.
Suffering physically and emotionally. Like this life is hard and it is filled with lots of crushed hopes. And when that happens there's part of us, if we're honest, that wants to shake our fist at God because he didn't deliver on what we want in life. And what happens is that leads to doubt. It leads to us doubting God and his goodness and his existence and his love. And sometimes that type of doubt arises out of crushed hopes.
And I would be willing to bet that Thomas probably felt some of that. Taking a lot of hope in the Christ that he thought who he was and then was disappointed. Listen, we feel doubt. There's a lot of different examples of what could have happened in Thomas' heart and what we feel on a regular basis. If you've been following Jesus for a few decades or this is the first time that you've been in a church building in years, we wrestle with doubt. And that is precisely why I love this story.
Because Thomas is relatable. He's an example of who we are. And what I love here, and I think it's not the main point of this text, but it's something that is certainly an encouragement, is that the church becomes a safe place to work out your doubts. That this, our church, is a safe place to work out your doubts. See, what Thomas does here is he doesn't abandon the community of faith when all this happens. Like, he sticks in it.
He stayed with them for a week in his doubt. And I love that as a picture of that's what we should do. We should be honest about the doubts that have arisen in our souls, in our minds, and actually be here and walk with other Christians and walk that out together. Voice it and actually live that out, walk that out and see where it goes in the context of the community of faith. That's what Thomas does. And for a week, he sat in his doubt.
And then Jesus came to him. Fast forward. Verse 26. Eight days later, his disciples were inside again. And Thomas was with them. Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, Peace be with you.
So similar scene. Locked in this room. Together. Jesus shows up. And he doesn't bring discouragement. He doesn't bring the hammer.
He says, Peace be with you. And then he pivots directly towards Thomas. Verse 27. Then he said to Thomas, Put your finger here and see my hands. Put out your hand and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.
Did you catch that? He references the same thing that Thomas said a week ago. He says, See the wounds. Place your finger here. Place your finger here. Do not disbelieve, but believe.
Believe. You see, Jesus addresses the heart of the matter. There are lots of different reasons for why we might be doubting, but at the core of doubt is disbelief. It's unbelief. And Jesus stands and says, Thomas, do not disbelieve, but believe. Believe it.
Believe that I have risen and what that means. And I love in verse 28 when it says, Thomas answered him, My Lord and my God. Now, we don't know, the text doesn't tell us, if he had to put his hands in or not. We don't know if he had to verify it with his hands or not. But we do see his response here.
My Lord and my God. And this is one of the most profound responses in all of the Gospels. You see, my Lord is a flexible statement. Depending on the context of the Bible, it can mean anything from my Lord, meaning the God of the universe, and sir. It's a pretty wide, flexible range. It can be deference, it can be respect, but it also can be this is my Lord and my God.
But there's no question what Thomas means when he says, my God, because no one else says that in the Gospels. No one. He says, my God, meaning that you are the sovereign God of the universe who created everything out of nothing who sustains our very hearts with your sovereign providence. You are the God of the universe. As I see the Father, I see you. You are God.
And commentators, when they talk about this moment, they say, this right here is the pinnacle moment of the entire Gospel of John. For as we're going to see in a moment, this Gospel is explicitly written with the hope that it would convince us to believe that Jesus is God. That's the hope of the Gospel of John. That's the angle he's going for. Believe it. Believe that he is God, which makes Thomas in this moment, the pinnacle moment, the most relatable figure for us.
It makes us look at Thomas and realize all the things that have happened so far that he abandoned Christ when he was arrested. That he questioned whether he was resurrected. Thomas is us. Because we're the kind of people that also say, God, show me that you love me. Show me that you care. Show me that you are real.
And after a week, God approaches Thomas and says, believe. Do not disbelieve. Believe. And Thomas believes. He believes that this is the Lord God. And the relief that he must have felt as Jesus comes to him, calls him into belief, and he finally sees the risen, resurrected Savior in all of his glory.
The amount of relief and joy that he must have felt in that moment. This story is for us. It's for every one of us that have wrestled through the darkest moments of unbelief, the darkest struggles of trying to still believe that Jesus is God. The story is for us. And then in verse 29 it says, Jesus said to him, Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.
That's us. That's the encouragement that Jesus gives us. He says, Thomas, you have seen, but those who believe, those who believe and place their faith in me as the resurrected Christ as their only hope, they are indeed blessed. That is the encouragement that Jesus gives to us. And then in verse 30 it says, Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book, but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. But this gospel is that we might believe.
That the skeptic might bring their doubts before the Lord, encounter him, and their doubts may fade. The one who's crushed by hope may encounter the God who gives eternal hope. Do not disbelieve, but believe. That is the hope of this story, is that we might also believe. But that's hard.
It's hard for us. It's hard to believe that. It's hard for us to, like there are times, I have three kids. They're six, four, and two. And I'm trying to raise them. I have some goals in how I'm raising them of where I want them to go.
And I have a big picture in mind for them, but it's hard for them to understand the big picture sometimes. Like they lose it sometimes and they don't get what they want. Like we do Easter baskets on Saturday morning and yesterday, my youngest, she got candy. And when she, you give her three jelly beans and she's a terrorist. I mean just, just went crazy. And like this happens.
My kids sometimes, they want things and I have to say, no, you can't have this. And every now and then I've just got to stop. And I got to get on their level. And sometimes I get, I get eye to eye. Sometimes I hold their face. I'm like, listen, you got to understand something.
Like I love you. I'm for you. What they don't realize is that I have hopes for them. I want them to one day, my biggest goal for my kids is they would believe in Jesus. Like that's, that's at the top of the list. Everything's way far below it.
But they would believe in Christ. They would be virtuous adults that are kind, that are graceful, that are loving. That they, that they would be able to take care of themselves. Because I'm a pastor and my retirement plan isn't super great. I don't, it's just, any boomerang action when they come back is not going to go well for them. Like I, but I, there are things I have in store for them and there's, I've got to plan the way that I, that my wife and I raised them.
The things we say no to, the things we say yes to, they don't realize that. And every now and then I just kind of get in front of them and say, listen, I love you. I am for you. I have your best interest in mind. You've got to trust me. You've got to trust me as your dad.
That what I, what I'm doing right now is ultimately for your good. And what Easter gets to be for us every year is that kind of reminder. In the midst of doubt, all the things that we may be facing, that God just holds us and says, listen, I love you. You may be wrestling with doubts and frustrations, some anger, confusion. Life is hard. There are lots of things that we face that make life difficult.
We have real doubts, but Easter is the reminder that God loves us, that He has a plan for us. He just points back to the empty tomb. The evidence that the tomb is empty, that Christ has been resurrected, that there is no one that has ever, that ever found this body, that they're never going to find it because Jesus walked out of it for us, that we have life in Him. And it is God's evidence that He loves us and that He is worthy of our trust. And that He can always point back to this, that every year as we pause to remember the death and resurrection of Jesus, that those events are God holding us and saying, don't you see, I love you.
You may be wrestling with skeptical doubt. I could go back and forth on, listen, the Bible is one of the most trustworthy, verified, ancient sources. It's unbelievable how trustworthy it is that these are eyewitness accounts of what happened with the empty tomb. But ultimately, there are lots of reasons you can find for skepticism. And Jesus holds out the scars and says, I am resurrected. Believe.
Do not disbelieve, but believe. You may have lots of crushed hopes that life may not be working out the way that you want it right now. The hope of the gospel is that you would have eternal life in Him. That means that things don't always get better this side of eternity, but what's held out in front of you is eternal life that is filled with endless joy that pales in comparison. The life and the sufferings that we have now pale in comparison to the joy that's found in eternity with Christ. Christ.
That's all made possible by the resurrection. I don't know how you came into this room. I don't know if this is the first church that you've been in in a long time. Maybe you've been outside of community. Maybe you've experienced real loss and real pain. Maybe for you, doubts aren't because of skepticism.
They're not because of any type of crushed hopes. For a lot of people, doubts are just the result of sin. It's saying, I want to live my life on my terms and I don't want God telling me how to live my life. So I'm going to do me. Maybe you're here and this message confronts you and what can happen when you get outside of the body of Christ, when you get outside of the church for a while and you come back into and you hear something like this, what can happen is man, I just, I don't know. Like I can't.
Y'all don't want me around here. I got to clean my life up. Like I got to get some stuff straightened out before I can ever be a part of a church like this. And I don't want you to miss what Jesus says here. He doesn't say behave and have faith. He says believe and have faith.
That ultimately what we're trusting in is not our only hope but what Christ has done for us. That as we celebrate it on Good Friday that Jesus went to the cross where he was nailed to the cross for our sins and our rebellion. And that what happens there and what Chet was walking through Friday night is that as he took our sin that he gives us his perfect record that we don't bring our good works we bring our sin and our burdens and through believing of what he has done for us on the cross and trusting that he walked out of the tomb on our behalf we get this life that is offered. But you got to believe.
Do not disbelieve but believe. That's the command that Jesus gives us. My open prayer for you this morning is that you would be confronted by this message confronted by the command to believe and that you'd be willing to take a step of faith. My hope for you this morning is that this is the first time you've been around church community in quite some time that you'd stick around a little longer that you'd work through some of your doubts with us and that ultimately that you would believe. Jesus holds that out in front of us. He holds it out as he held out his hands before Thomas and he says do not disbelieve.
Believe.
Cross
Transcript
Good morning. I had a teacher in high school who once said that transfer of the blame is like America's favorite pastime, which is ironic because he's my baseball coach as well. And he was right. That's just what we do. It's our nature to just want to blame someone else. There's this thing going on with my wife and I right now where I come home and I have something to tell her.
Maybe it's like we're trying to schedule a date night or there's something on the calendar we need to talk about. And I have a conversation with her and tell her kind of what's up. And then a week later I'm like, honey, do you remember the thing that I told you about? And she goes, no, that did not happen. And I vividly remember I was in the kitchen and you were sitting down and I walked you through it. And she goes, no, you may have had that conversation in your head, but that actually did not happen.
And this has happened multiple times recently. And I'm just like, honey, I get it. Like, you've been crushing it lately. We've had two kids in the past three years. And we know that science says when you have children, you lose brain cells. So you've got me to remember.
And that's why I'm here. And she's thankful for that. We do. It's just like our gut instinct. We just want to blame one another. I remember growing up when I was a kid, my brother and I, he's 18 months older than I am.
And, man, we just would blame each other. If anything would happen, we'd point fingers. And there was this one time that he really got me good. He was pretty sneaky and conniving. He saw how I was in elementary school and I was learning how to sign my name. And I had like a specific way that I had practiced signing it.
And he watched and he's like, I think I can copy that. So he took a black Sharpie marker. My parents have this white brick fireplace. And he went up to the white brick fireplace in Sharpie and signed my name. My parents came to me and they were like, they were upset. I was like, I didn't do it.
I didn't know who did it. I was like, I didn't do it. And something happened in that moment in the years to come. I guess I like believe that I did it. I actually remember me actually doing this. Like I have like an invented memory in my head.
And then about a year ago, my brother said, hey, remember that time that I forged your name on the fireplace? And I was like, what? No, I wrote that. He goes, no, you didn't. He's like, I did. I set you up, man.
I got you good. And I was like, man, like I'm questioning reality now. That may explain the conversations I have with my wife. And we do that. That's our gut instinct is to blame someone else and let them be the fall guy. Like we don't want to sacrifice.
That's just not in our nature. And this time every year we slow down and we remember the one who took the fall for us. And we are in week two of our three-week series in Easter. And we are focusing on the death of Christ this morning. And specifically we're going to look at one scene from the death of Christ. When Jesus is crucified and a man who is supposed to get that penalty is released.
When a murderer is set free. We're going to look at the story of how Barabbas was set free and Jesus is sent to the cross. It's in Luke 23, verses 13 through 25, which is on page 515 in your blue Bibles. If you don't have a Bible, please take one of those Bibles home. That is our gift to you. I'm going to pray for us this morning.
And then we're going to dive in. God, thank you so much for this week. That we get to prepare for Good Friday. That we get to prepare for what you have done for us. God, I pray that you would help us be present this morning. As we look upon one of the more painful and beautiful scenes we have in the Bible.
We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Alright, so last week we talked about the Last Supper. Which was the Thursday night before Jesus was betrayed. And if you didn't get a chance to listen to that sermon, I encourage you to go back and listen to it. It's helpful as we practice the Lord's Supper, as we practice communion.
It's helpful to prepare us for that. But during that Last Supper, Jesus calls out Judas, the disciple who was going to betray him. And at this point, Judas has decided in his heart that he's going to betray Jesus. So Judas leaves the meal. Jesus takes his disciples. They go up to the Mount of Olives, which is the hill right above the city.
And in that hill is a garden called the Garden of Gethsemane. And Jesus gets away to pray. And this is one of the more powerful scenes we have of the humanity of Christ. He prays so intensely that he starts to sweat blood. Which is an actual medical condition for someone who is under extreme duress. And the reason why he's under such extreme duress is not just because of what's about to happen.
That he's about to have a painful death on the cross. It's also the spiritual overtone of what's happening here. Is that God the Father, the Father whom he has enjoyed eternal fellowship and joy with, is about to pour out the full cup of his wrath on him and turn his back on him. So he's preparing for this. And then eventually Judas comes with the chief priests, their guards. And he comes and he arrests Jesus.
And they take him to the chief priests. At this point, nine of the other disciples, they just bounce in fear. They leave. We know that two followed. One of them was Peter. So as Jesus is being tried, and it's a kangaroo court trial.
He's being tried by a group called the Sanhedrin. This is the council of the religious leaders who helped rule the nation of Jerusalem. It's a joke of a trial. They've already decided they want to put him to death. They're just looking for some reason they can take him to have him put to death. And as this is going on, Peter is in the courtyard outside.
And Peter is asked three times if he is a follower of Jesus. And all three times he denies him. And the third time, there's a powerful scene when Jesus looks out into the courtyard, makes eye contact, and a rooster crows, just as Jesus had predicted. And then Peter weeps and he leaves. We only know there's one disciple who actually was there. We don't know how much of it he was there.
We do know that John was there at the foot of the cross when Jesus died. But at this point, he's been abandoned. And he's before the Sanhedrin, before the religious leaders. And they finally find cause that he says he's the son of God. And that's what they needed. So they go.
They can't actually... In Jerusalem, they don't really have the authority to put him to death. Nor do they really want to because Jesus is a popular figure amongst the people. So they go and they take him to two people who can do the dirty work for him. They first take him to Pontius Pilate. Pontius is the governor.
He's the Roman governor of the region. He's the one that's really in control of the region of Jerusalem and Judea and Galilee. And they take him to him. And he doesn't really know what to do with this. And he's like, why don't you take him to your Jewish king? Why don't you take him to Herod?
So then Jesus is taken to Herod. And King Herod basically says, I don't want anything to do with this. Take him back to Pontius Pilate. And it's at this point we pick up in the text in verse 13. It says, Pilate then called together the chief priests and the rulers and the people and said to them, You brought me this man as one who is misleading the people. And after examining him before you, behold, I did not find this man guilty of any of your charges against him.
Neither did Herod, for he sent him back to us. Look, nothing deserving death has been done by him. I will therefore punish and release him. And it's at this point that they are going to torture Jesus. This is something that the Romans were really, really good at. They're going to scourge him.
And if you've ever seen The Passion of the Christ, this scene is actually depicted fairly accurately. And if you haven't seen The Passion of the Christ, honestly, it would be a great week to watch as we prepare for Good Friday. And in the scene that shows this, they tie Jesus up to a post. And they take what is called a cat of nine tails. It's a special whip that has, at the end of it, shards of bone and rock. And the whole point was that it would latch in to your back and rip out chunks of flesh.
And Jesus is scourged in this manner, and it is painful, and his back is mutilated. And at this point, Pilate's plan is that I can torture him. If they can see to almost the point of death how bad he's been tortured, maybe they'll give up. And then you get from 16, and then if you read in your Bible, it skips down to 18. So you might be wondering, where's verse 17?
What happened? To get a little bit nerdy for a second, because this will be helpful going forward. This only happens a few times in the Bible. But if you look at the footnote, which is the little, tiny, little letter A that follows verse 16, that is going to tell us what's going on. And if you're not a fan of footnotes, like I'm not a huge fan of footnotes. I know some of you have research backgrounds, and you're like, I love footnotes.
There's something wrong with you. I had a friend in seminary that we took a class together, and we were reading this book together. And I was like, dude, do you see this book? It's got three lines, and every page has tons of footnotes. This is awful. And he's like, no, I love it.
That's where the meat is at. I'm like, okay, fine. But footnotes are helpful. And in the ESV, in the version that we use, there's a few footnotes that tell us what's going on. And this specific footnote, it tells us that this verse 17 was not a part of the earliest manuscripts. And what that means is there's a field called textual criticism, and the people who have organized the ESV have looked and seen that verse 17 wasn't a part of the earliest manuscripts.
The numbering system we have came around the time that the King James Version came around. And the King James Version, which doesn't really base most of its stuff off of the earliest manuscripts, it had verse 17. And it's not saying that 17 isn't true. It's just saying it's not inspired scripture. Verse 17 says, Now he was obliged to release one man to them at the festival. Now we know that's true because that's pretty much what Mark 15.6 says about this.
Mark 15.6 says, Now at the feast, he, Pilate, used to release for them one prisoner for whom they asked. So Pilate had a practice, a practice of releasing prisoners during this time, specifically at big festivals like Passover. It was kind of his way of saying, I'll give you one of your people back, one of your prisoners. I'll give them back to you. You just need to calm down. No riots, no rebellions.
Here's the trade-off. You all just remain calm. And if you look at history and you look at how the Romans did stuff, this is not normally what they did. Like they didn't have prison release programs. They ruled with an iron fist. Like this doesn't make a whole lot of sense.
So to understand what's going on here, you need a little background to what is happening in this scene. The Roman government ruled over this land and the Jews hated it. They couldn't stand it. And there was rebellion after rebellion to try to take back the land. And a lot of these rebellions would happen at major festivals like Passover. Because this is when all the Jews from around the world would come together at once.
And that's when if you want to do a rebellion, you had the Numbers and you could take them out. So there was a lot of tension in this moment as Passover is happening. And Pilate is feeling the tension. In fact, Pontius Pilate is pretty close to losing his job as governor. He loses it a few years later because he can't control the people. So he needs to have this release program to kind of ease the tension.
But he also needs the Sanhedrin. He needs the religious rulers. Because this is a theocratic state, meaning this is a state that is ruled by God. And the religious rulers are the ones who help rule it. And he needs them to keep the people in line. So he's got this group of people coming up to him.
And they want Jesus dead. And Jesus is a celebrity at this point. He is. He's one of the most popular people in the land. This is the traveling miracle worker. This is the preacher.
This is the one the people love. He feeds the people. This is the traveling sage, the wise man. He has a big following. And this group of people that Pilate needs to keep the people in check has brought someone the people love. And it's a messy, messy situation.
And that's why Pilate's first move is if I can just torture them and they'll see what I've done to them. Maybe they'll calm down. And then I can use my release program to release them back to the people and we'll get by. And that is not at all what they want. Verse 18 picks up. It says, But they all cried out together, Away with this man and release to us Barabbas, a man who has been thrown into prison for an insurrection, started in the city, and for murder.
So having Jesus tortured is not enough. Now they want Barabbas, who we'll get to in a minute, but he's a notorious criminal and they want him. And as you look at this scene, like if you look at the political maneuvering, you take a step back. This whole scene is jacked up. They're using Jesus, the God of the universe, as a chess piece, as a pawn. And they, I mean, it's, it's, the very God who ordained that these leaders be there in the first place.
They're, they're using him like a chess piece. It is, it is sick to watch as these vile cast of characters have come around Jesus. It kind of feels like, like, like one of the biggest scenes from Harry Potter, when Dumbledore dies. Like I know, I mentioned Harry Potter. And some of you are like, man, this is awesome. You just talked about textual criticism and history, and I'm dying inside.
All right, like this, I'm back on board. And then some of you are like, are you serious? Did your generation read another book? Like, are there any other movies that you watch? Listen, I gave you Terminator last week, and I heard crickets. It's, so sorry, Gen Xers, we're back at Harry Potter.
It's like one of the craziest scenes from Harry Potter, the most climactic scene when Dumbledore dies. And Dumbledore is, is the, is the greatest wizard, one of the greatest wizards of all time. And he's a good wizard. He's helped raise Harry. And, and there's a scene when he's getting ready to die, and he knows it's coming. And he has Harry Potter with him, and he tells him to hide.
Like, hide, get away. Don't say a word. You're going to see this, but I don't want you to come out at all. And, uh, Voldemort, who's the evil wizard, the one who must not be named, he has a group of, a band of thugs called the Death Eaters, and he has sent them to come and kill Dumbledore. And they come, and they surround Dumbledore, and they're the vilest characters in the entire series. And Dumbledore just stands there.
He offers no defense. I mean, he's Dumbledore. Like, if he wanted to just abracadab his way out of this thing, just kill them all, and just fly off in a blaze of glory, he could. He has the power to do that, but he doesn't. He stands there, offers no defense, and lets them kill him, because there is a greater plan in place to save the wizard world, and is going to require his death. But as you're watching it, you're just watching it, furious, watching it, frustrated.
In the same way, like, we're watching as the king of the universe is in front of these people that are so vile, and he stands silent, does not offer a defense. And then Barabbas enters the scene. Now, we don't know much about Barabbas. We know that he's notorious enough that they asked for him as a criminal to be released. We know that he was in prison for insurrection. He was in prison for trying to overthrow the Roman government, which was what, that was the biggest enemy of the Romans, was people like Barabbas.
We know that he's a murderer, and we don't really know the circumstances of it. We just know he's guilty of murder, and he's guilty of the punishment that is coming. So Pilate gives them an option. You pick up in verse 20. It says, Pilate addressed them once more, desiring to release Jesus, but they kept shouting, Crucify! Crucify him!
The third time he said to them, Why? What evil has he done? I found in him no guilt deserving death. I will therefore punish him, release him. But they were urgent, demanding with loud cries that he should be crucified.
And their voices prevailed. So Pilate decided that their demand should be granted. Now we know from Mark's Gospel, that in this scene, the chief priests are in the crowd, stirring up the people, chanting Barabbas, and chanting for him to be crucified. Which is one of the most brutal ways that the Romans would kill people that rebelled against the government. And it was reserved mostly for people that would rebel against the government. reserved for insurrection, it's just like Barabbas. There's a book called Out of Egypt.
It's called Out of Egypt. It's written by Anne Rice. Anne Rice is an author. She writes fiction. She wrote Interview with a Vampire, Queen of the Vampire, Interview with a Vampire, was a 90s movie with Tom Cruise and I think Brad Pitt. And she's a good writer.
It's good vampire fiction. Not like really bad vampire fiction. I don't have a dog in that fight. I just wanted to mess with Twilight fans. But she wrote this book called Out of Egypt because she's Catholic.
And it's a fictional retelling of Jesus' return from Egypt back to Galilee, back to his hometown. And it's fiction, but she uses historical events. And it's actually, when you read it, it gives you a picture of what the land, what it would have been like back then. So Jesus, his family, they leave Egypt and they go to Jerusalem first because in Jerusalem, there's a major festival that they want to take part in. And when they get there, a rebellion breaks out. An actual historical rebellion that you can look back in history and study.
And during this rebellion, they take back some of the land. They take back some buildings. But the Roman government comes in and absolutely destroys it. And there's a scene when Jesus and his family are walking down this country road. And there is a line of crosses, crucifixion after crucifixion after crucifixion, lining the entire road, lined with all of these rebels. And they are naked.
They are dying slowly. You would suffocate to death. That was how crucifixion worked. And each one of them is a picture of what the Roman government does when you mess with them. If you're going to rebel against us, you will get the most brutal, shameful, humiliating way to die. And it's a helpful picture of what kind of punishment was awaiting someone like Barabbas.
And instead, it is reserved for Jesus. And they want crucifixion. At this point, like Pilate, I mean, he's got to be, what are they doing here? They want the traveling miracle worker, the preacher, the one who like almost a week ago they were shouting, Hosanna, Hosanna, as he came to the city. They want him crucified. That's what we do to insurrectionists.
That doesn't make any sense. And if you read Matthew's account of this, Matthew adds a part that says that his wife is disturbed by this. She's having nightmares. And she comes to Pontius Pilate and says, you've got to let him go. Like this, you don't want to be a part of this. But the chief priests, they know exactly what they're doing.
They don't just want Jesus dead. They want him cursed. That's why they want crucifixion. You look at Deuteronomy from the Old Testament, the Old Testament law. There's a section on capital punishment. And in Deuteronomy 21, 23, it says this, His body shall not remain all night on a tree, but you shall bury him the same day.
For a hanged man is cursed by God. Or as other versions say, cursed is a man who's hung on a tree. So they think that if we have the Romans do our dirty work, all right, and we have them put them on a tree and have them cursed will kill his rebellion or will kill his movement. And if you look at this, it is so insidious and evil. They don't want just Jesus dead. They want him cursed.
They want him damned. I mean, it is an awful scene. And Pilate, he gives in. And he frees Barabbas. And I want you to picture with me what that would have looked like, Barabbas being freed. He's spared.
And the cross that was meant for him is now passed over to Jesus. And he's probably sitting in his cell awaiting. He's on death row. So like any movie or any television show, you've seen someone on death row. He's on death row awaiting a brutal form of death. And the guards start coming down the hallway.
And they take him out. At this point, he's probably breathing heavier. His heart's pounding faster, preparing for what's about to happen. And they step out and they take his chains off. And they say, you're free to go. I mean, what would he have felt like?
What was that scene? What would it look like? Like, you're going to let me go? Yeah, yeah, you've been released. You're the prisoner that's being released for Passover. There was this movement to get Jesus.
You remember Jesus, the miracle worker has been traveling around for a few years? There was a movement to get him released, but they're actually going to have him take her cross. So you're free to go. And then Barabbas walks away as Jesus walks up the hill to be crucified. And it is at this point that you are supposed to feel the overwhelming sense of irony of what's happening here. That the chief priest, they knew the Old Testament law better than most people.
They had the whole Old Testament memorized. They can't see what's going on here. They can't see that what this picture of Barabbas being set free and Jesus being sacrificed, they can't see what's happening is a visual fulfillment of one of the biggest festivals that they would take part in, Yom Kippur, which means Day of Atonement. So Passover is the feast that's happening now. And a few months after this is going to be the second biggest feast, which is the Day of Atonement. And at the Day of Atonement, it was a festival that the chief priests would organize and do.
And it was a way for them to, they had sacrifices throughout the year that would cover sins, but this was the one event, the Day of Atonement, when everyone would come together as a nation and all the sins that they may not have covered could be covered right now. And at the pinnacle moment of Yom Kippur, they would take two goats and one goat, they would cast lots and they would take one goat and it would be set aside and this goat would be sacrificed. The second one, which they called the scapegoat, that goat would be set free and it would be taken away and it would go into the wilderness and it was free to go. And that is a picture of what's happening here as Barabbas is set free and Jesus is taken away to be sacrificed.
And Hebrews 9 teaches us that Jesus perfectly fulfilled the Day of Atonement. He perfectly fulfilled the sacrificial system. This is all playing out right in front of their very eyes and they can't see it. This visual fulfillment of Jesus fulfilling the Day of Atonement on this Day of Atonement, that is our story. That is the story of what Jesus does for His church. That we were sitting on death row but Jesus came and swapped places with us.
That we, that we were sitting in the cell and we're set free and Jesus goes and takes the cross. that Jesus was nailed to a tree that we are set free. That we get His goodness and His grace and His mercy and Jesus takes our punishment that we deserve. And for those of us that have trusted in Jesus as our only hope, this is the picture that we have. This is the picture that Paul plays off in 2 Corinthians 5.21 when he says, for our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. This is the picture that we get. That not only that Jesus becomes our substitute and He takes our place, that we get the riches of Christ that come with it.
His righteousness. And we might read stories and see movies that capture parts of this. Like you can think of stories of substitution like the Hunger Games when Katniss steps in for a sister. Her sister gets called into the Hunger Games where she is going to die and Katniss comes in and takes her place to sacrifice herself for her. We get glimpses of that but we don't get the other part. There are other stories like you can look at Les Mis where Jean Valjean has been in prison for 20 plus years and he's set free, he's on parole and he quickly breaks his parole when he goes to a priest's house and he's treated like a human and he's given a meal and then when they all go to sleep he goes and he takes the silver and he runs.
He steals. And he's caught and he's brought back and as he's brought back he knows at this point he will go to prison for the rest of his life and the priest steps in and says, oh no, no this is a gift. In fact, you missed the finest silver. You can take this with you and make for yourself a better life. Make for yourself a better man. Like we get pictures of that, the riches, we get pictures of the substitute but we don't get it all together like we get in the gospel.
That's the hope of the gospel that we have. And the chief priest, man, they can't see it. All they can focus on is we're going to curse them. We're going to curse them and they can't even see that the very God who inspired Deuteronomy, the very God who inspired this text is fulfilling it. Paul says in Galatians 3.13, he says, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. For it is written, cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree.
So the religious leaders, yeah, their plan worked. They had Jesus cursed. But they didn't realize that they were a tool. They were clay in the hands of a potter. And what they meant for evil, God meant for good. And Jesus takes on our curse on the cross, the curse that we deserve.
That's the picture of what's happening here. And in verse 24, it picks up. It says, So Pilate decided that their demand should be granted. He released the man who had been thrown into prison for insurrection and for murder and for whom they had asked. But he delivered Jesus over to their will.
And we can piece together the story of what happens after this from the other Gospels and from Luke. At this point, Jesus, he's mocked. They take a purple robe which signified royalty and they put it on and they mock him and they take a crown of thorns. Not like rose thorns. Like think desert long thorns and they force it into his skull. And after he's been tortured and after he's been mocked, they put a cross on his already mutilated back.
And he goes as far as he can and he collapses. Maybe the cross falls on him. Maybe it falls on the crown of thorns. We don't know. But he collapses.
And he can't even make it any farther. His body is starting to fall apart. So they bring in a man named Simon, a guy who's just passing by and watching. And he helps them carry it up the hill of Colgolgotha. And they take his hands and they stretch them out and they take nails, stakes, and they drive it through his hands into the cross. And some people get hung up.
Was it his hands? Was it his wrist? I mean, the ancient concept for hand is the wrist and the hand. Does it matter? They take nails and they drive it through his hands and they take his feet. They overlap it and they drive a stake through his feet into the cross and they raise him up and he starts to slowly suffocate.
He would have to force himself up to take deep breaths, which means he's forcing his feet up through the nail. And he's slowly bleeding out and he's slowly suffocating until finally he gives up his life. And a soldier comes with a spear and cuts him open and the water and the blood comes pouring out. And when you read this, when you read this story, like there's a part of us that just screams, like this isn't fair. It's not fair that Jesus goes to the cross and a murderer is set free. Like that, that's not even a choice.
Like the God who created beauty and babies and love and goodness is humiliated to death on a cross and this guy gets to go? Who's shouting Barabbas at this point? This isn't even a choice. And oftentimes, I feel like I'm reading this as an outsider. I feel like we do this. We read this as an outsider.
And sometimes, we've got to press in and read this from a different perspective. And we've got to read this from the perspective of Barabbas. Barabbas has been set free. He's walking away, dumbfounded, not understanding what just happened as Jesus goes and takes the cross that he deserved. Because we are captives. We who came into this world as captives to sin.
And Jesus came to release us from our sin and to give us freedom. It's not fair. Fair is getting the punishment that we deserve for rebelling against God. But the good news of the gospel that Jesus loved us so much that he stepped in for us. He stepped in for us and he said, release Spencer and crucify me. That's the hope of the gospel that we get to celebrate.
And that's the hope of the gospel that we get to celebrate next week on Easter Sunday as we hear baptism stories. We have five baptism stories. And they're going to be stories that echo what happened at the cross. And each story is going to be a picture of that. Of Jesus saying, release Dakota and crucify me. Release Sarah and crucify me.
Release Kale and release Cambria and release Kaelin and crucify me. And we're going to get to celebrate next Sunday the hope of the gospel that sinners are set free because of what happened on Good Friday.
The Lord's Supper
Transcript
Good morning. My name is Spencer. I'm a pastor in training here with Mill City Church. We are taking a three-week break from Ephesians. We've been in Ephesians for a few months now, and we want to take a three-week break and prepare ourselves for Easter. And the reason we want to do this is I feel like Easter gets a backseat to Christmas.
Christmas in the American economy is a cash cow. But in the Christian calendar, traditionally, Easter is it. It is the biggest thing on our calendar. It's the biggest moment of redemption in our church, so it should be celebrated and prepared for. And I feel like every time around this year, Easter just sneaks up on us. And so we're going to take three weeks to really prepare for this.
Today we're going to be walking through the Lord's Supper, which was the Thursday before Jesus was betrayed. And we're going to walk through the Lord's Supper, the event of the Last Supper, and how we practice the Lord's Supper out of that. Next week we're going to follow the death of Christ, and we will close on Easter with the resurrection and a baptism party. So we're going to be in Luke 22, his account of the Last Supper on page 514 in your blue Bibles. If you don't have a Bible, you can take that home with you. That is our gift to you.
In college, I went to Presbyterian College, and one of the biggest parts of Presbyterian College, of PC, is graduation. Like, it's a really big deal. So Chet and Matt, a few other pastors here, went to PC with me. And it is just, graduation is a really big deal for a few different reasons. Like, it was, on the day that you graduate, you line up in a building called Neville. And when you get Neville, the doors open, and you come out, and there's a beautiful green lawn with historic buildings on both sides.
And what really makes graduation at PC awesome is the bagpipes. PC is a Scottish Presbyterian College, so we do bagpipes. And bagpipes elevate anything. It's kind of like the slow-mo of music. I mean, slow-mo makes me, I could eat a hamburger, and if it's in slow-mo, it looks awesome. And that's what bagpipes do.
I could be changing my son's diaper, and if I've got bagpipes in the background, it elevates the occasion. All right? And bagpipes elevate already a big occasion of graduation. It just made it awesome. And it's a joyous time. I mean, if you're lucky enough, you get to hear amazing speeches at graduation.
The year before I graduated, Mr. PC was our very own Matt Freeman. He was the most outstanding senior of Presbyterian College, and he got to give a speech, and I heard it was great. And it's just an exciting time. It's just a joyous time. For me personally, it was great, because my wife and I, we were getting ready to get married a couple weeks after graduation.
And it was a new chapter, and it was really exciting. But also, there's mixed emotions, because graduation is kind of bittersweet. It's a time where you've spent the last three or four years getting to know people that you're really close with, and you've already been through one graduation before, and you kind of realize after you graduate from high school, like you're going to lose contact with people. There are people that you see at graduation that you might never see again. And the years will go by, and you realize that you're going to go in separate ways, and you're starting a new chapter.
It was also a little bit sad, because I graduated in 2011, which was really the bottom of the U.S. economy. And all of us had four-year degrees from expensive liberal arts colleges. Well, we didn't have a lot of jobs. I worked at a coffee shop as soon as I got out. So it was just kind of a sad time, because of what we were getting ready to step into.
And there's all kinds of mixed emotions and moments like that. And sometimes you don't even see them coming. Moments like this, they carry mixed emotions, because they're packed with meaning and significance. And there's a weightiness in those moments that sometimes you just don't see coming. And the same way, the Lord's Supper is just like this. It is a weighty moment at the Last Supper.
And the more that we understand the significance of what's going on there, the more that we understand what's going on behind the scenes, we'll better be able to appreciate what's happening at the event of the Last Supper. So we're going to be in Luke 22, verses 14 through 20. And we're going to sit in these verses. And there's three things that we'll see in the Last Supper. We'll first see that the Last Supper is of past remembrance. It is pointing back to something.
And then we'll see that it's pointing forward to something. That it is a future taste of something to come. And then lastly, we see that it is for the present communion of the church. So that when we practice the Lord's Supper regularly in the church, we'll do the same thing. It'll be a past remembrance. It'll give us a future taste of what is to come.
But it'll be for our present communion as a church. All right, so we're in Luke 22, verses 14. It starts out, And when the hour came, he reclined at the table and the apostles with him. And he said to them, I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you, I will not eat it until it's fulfilled in the kingdom of God. And he took a cup.
And when he had given thanks, he said, Take this and divide it amongst yourselves. For I tell you, that from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes. And he took the bread. And when he had given thanks, he broke it. And he gave it to them, saying, This is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.
And likewise, the cup after they had eaten, saying, This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood. I'll pray and we'll dive in. God, thank you so much that you've given us this beautiful sign and this weighty ceremony that you did 2,000 years ago. God, I pray that you would help us see the beauty of the Last Supper as we practice the Lord's Supper. God, I pray you would speak to us, that you would help us be present, that you would block out any distractions so that we can hear your word in Jesus' name. Amen.
All right, so he starts out in verse 14. He says, And when the hour came, he reclined at the table and the apostles with him. 15. And he said to them, I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. So you can't fully understand what's happening at the Last Supper without understanding the significance of Passover.
Passover is the back story to the Last Supper. When I was a kid, the first Terminator movie that I watched was Terminator 2. And I remember watching it, and it starts out with John Connor, who's a kid, and the Terminator, which is Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Arnie is protecting him from another bad, futuristic Terminator who's been sent back. And they're piling around, and they're dodging this guy, and their plan is to go break out his mother from a mental institution. So they get there, and they're getting ready to break her out, and she sees Arnold Schwarzenegger, and she's terrified, and starts running the other way.
And I remember thinking, what is she doing? Like, he's met there to save her, to protect her, to protect her. She should be happy. It did not dawn on me that in the first movie, and if you've seen the original Terminator, he's trying to kill her the entire movie. Like, that's the whole point of the first Terminator, is he has come back to kill Sarah Connor. Like, if you haven't seen the first Terminator, if you don't know the back story, you kind of get a little bit lost.
You don't know what's going on behind the scenes. I can tell that not many of you are Terminator fans, because none of you had any response to that. How about this? How about this? If you're a superhero nerd, like, if you got really, really geeked up about Black Panther, and said, I am so excited, I can't wait until Infinity Wars get here, I've already got my tickets locked and loaded Thursday at 7 o'clock, if that's you, this is the origin story. You're welcome.
This is the origin story. This is the backdrop to the Lord's Supper. So, for order us to understand what's going on here, we have to know the story of Passover. So, a quick refresher on Passover. Passover is the tenth plague out of the ten plagues that happen in the story of Exodus. So, the story of Exodus is that the people of God, the Israelites, are enslaved to the Egyptians, and that God, after hundreds of years, he raises up Moses to free his people from the Egyptians, from slavery.
And one by one, Moses comes before Pharaoh, and he says, let my people go. And he says no. And then plagues start happening. One by one, starting to break the power of Pharaoh. And then when we get to the tenth plague, Moses comes to Pharaoh and says, if you do not let my people go, the firstborn son in every household in Egypt will die. And Pharaoh says no.
So, Moses goes to the Israelites, and he says, this is what you must do. You must take a lamb, and you must slaughter it. And you must take the blood. And Exodus 12, 13 says, the blood shall be a sign for you. On the houses where you are, when I see the blood, I will pass over you. So, you must take the blood, and smear it on your doorposts.
And when the Lord comes through to take the firstborn son out of every household in Egypt, he will pass over your household. So, that's what the people of God do. They put, they took the blood of the lamb, they put it on the doorposts, and the Lord comes through, and he takes the firstborn son out of every household in Egypt, and he spares the Israelites. And this moment is the biggest moment in the history of Israel. I mean, that's why in Exodus 12, as Moses is explaining this, he's saying, you're going to remember this time. This is going to be in the first month of your calendars.
This is kind of like a little bit of the festival they do that celebrates the ushering in of a new year. I mean, this is at the forefront of your calendars because it's the biggest moment in your history. That God claimed you as a covenant people. He redeemed you from slavery. He redeemed you and brought you into the promised land. That is why in Exodus 12, 14, it says, this day shall be a memorial day.
And that memorial word is key. We'll come back to that. And you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord throughout your generations as a statute forever. You shall keep it as a feast. And from this moment, even into today, every year around this time, there is a feast that happens. It's called the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
It is the celebration of Passover. And every time around this, every year around this time of year, Jews get together and they celebrate Passover and what is traditionally called a Seder meal. Now, I didn't know what a Seder meal was because I grew up in Lexington. And it was 10 years ago. I mean, it's changed a little bit, but there's just not a lot of Jewish people in Lexington. It's just the reality.
I'd never met a Jewish person until I got to college. And when I got to college and I studied abroad, I actually had to leave PC to meet a Jewish person. When I studied abroad in our study abroad program, I finally met these people from L.A. and New York and there was Jewish students. And around this time, they got together and they did a Passover meal. They did a Seder meal where they would eat specific foods and they would say specific prayers and have readings and tell stories. And they do this every single year.
One of the traditional liturgies that's read during the Seder meal is called the Halakma Anya, which is Aramaic for the bread of affliction. And this is what this reading says. It says, This is the bread of affliction, the poor bread, which our ancestors ate in the land of Egypt. Let all who are hungry come and eat. Let all who are in want share the hope of Passover. As we celebrate here, we join with our people everywhere.
This year we celebrate here, next year in the land of Israel. Now we are still in bonds. Next year we may all be free. Now we can tell from the back end of that that this is probably written around 6th century B.C. because it's got exile language. They want to go back to the land. And that means that for the years, the centuries that would follow, the Jewish people would read liturgies like this.
They would say prayers together, preparing themselves for Passover. All of that history, all of it is packed into right here in Luke 22. When Jesus says, I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. All of that history is in mind. I mean, the disciples, when they hear that, would be ready, would be prepared to read readings like this, to say prayers together, to prepare for the Passover. But Jesus starts to make this Passover look differently.
And one of the first things he does in making it look differently is he chooses to celebrate it on the wrong day. He chooses to celebrate it on a Thursday. And historians and theologians look back and say it would not have happened on a Thursday, it would have happened later. So he's already chosen to celebrate the Passover early. And then he really starts to change the details. He eventually even makes it about himself.
And all these little moves have got to have the disciples clued in a little bit to what's going on. Like what, wondering what Jesus is actually doing here. I mean, if you at Thanksgiving had the details switched up on you, and Thanksgiving is probably the closest thing we have to Passover. It's the meal that we celebrate when our ancestors came over and we were formed as a people. It's kind of a little bit similar. And every year we eat food and we watch football and it's awesome.
Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. But if most of us have a general understanding of how it goes and if someone starts messing with the details of it, like all of a sudden if you've got like a table that everyone sits at and everyone sits in the same spot every year and all of a sudden your mother comes and says, actually, you know, your brother's going to be in the back this year. You're going to start to wonder, what has he done? Right? Maybe, maybe you have the same family members that come every year and then all of a sudden your cousins and your aunt and uncle don't show up. And you talk to your dad and you're like, what's going on?
And it's like, they're not invited. And it's like, oh, did I miss something? Did something happen? Maybe you've shown up to Thanksgiving before and you saw the saddest looking turkey in the world and you said, honey, what is this? Well, actually, this is a tofurkey because your sister is now a vegan and you immediately curse her existence for ruining Thanksgiving. If someone starts to mess with the details, you're going to start to wonder why and the disciples at this point are starting to wonder why.
I mean, Jesus comes all the way and says he co-ops the holiday and makes it about himself. I mean, you try doing that. Co-op Christmas and see how that goes. This year at Christmas, you will give gifts, electronic devices, and money. You can lay them on my feet and we will celebrate me. Like that, that doesn't go well.
So Jesus, he starts to mess with the details here and the disciples really start to wonder what is he doing? What Jesus is doing here is he's taking their memorial meal, the way that they celebrate their redemption and he's using it as the basis for his memorial meal which will be the Lord's Supper and how he will be remembered. And he chooses Thursday to celebrate it because on Friday he will become the Passover lamb. Jesus co-ops Passover because from this point on he's saying from now on my blood is going to cover you. Like the eternal power of death, it will pass over. I will be the one that redeems you.
It will be his blood that sets the captives, sets the slaves to this world free. And just as the Jews look back to this moment in history, Jesus is fulfilling the moment of Passover. He's fulfilling Exodus and we get to look back to the cross. We get to look back to the cross as our history of salvation. So it is one for us as we practice the Lord's Supper.
It is a Passover remembrance for us too. So when we approach the table, we get to look back at the cross. And this is how this plays out. Maybe you come in on a Sunday and you are feeling the guilt of sin in an unhealthy way that's not leading to repentance and you are starting to question your identity in Christ.
Easter Baptism 2016
Transcript
Well, good morning. Happy Easter. My name is Chet. I'm one of the pastors here. We're going to be in Matthew chapter 27 this morning. We're going to spend a little bit of time there.
That's on page 540 if your Bible looks like this. Grab one of the blue and white Bibles on the row. If you don't own a Bible, this is our gift to you. Take it home with you. So I found, it seems to me that when it comes to people's viewpoints of Christianity, what Christianity is, what it's about, specifically people who maybe haven't, aren't Christians.
Like if you just went down the street and just kind of took a poll, I think you kind of get two major viewpoints about what the Bible is, what it's about, what Christianity is about. And usually it seems like people fall into two camps. So on one side you have, the Bible is a book of rules, mostly. Like mostly is a book of morals. It's, you read this, it's going to teach you how to live. It's God's roadmap to life.
It's how to make good decisions. It's God's plan for us, what he wants us to do, how we ought to behave. That Jesus was a great moral teacher. And that he came to show us how to follow the rules. How to behave. How to be very moral.
And that's kind of one side. And so people would say maybe that if you just follow the rules, all of life would be better. Which is pretty much true for all sets of rules, all belief systems. If you just kind of followed what they said, most of the time it's like that people would get along better. That's what people say. That's what Christianity is.
It's a set of rules that if we follow, we'll get along better. And if you follow them really well, maybe God will love you or maybe God will be pleased with you. Maybe God will bless you. Or maybe when you die you can stand before him and you get to go to heaven because you've been a good person. That's one of the major popular beliefs about Christianity. The other side is kind of a no.
The Bible is primarily about love. It's about how we treat one another. How we love one another. It's not about God's rules. It's about love. That God loves us.
He loves us so much that God forgives us. And Jesus came to show us how to love. And if you just follow the rules, then you'll end up being really hypocritical or you'll be really proud. Or you'll be one of those religious old ladies that's just mean to everybody. But you just need to learn how to love.
And that's what Jesus was all about. The problem with both of those, though, is that the one thing that most people know about Christianity is that Jesus... You say, okay, he was a great moral teacher or, you know, he taught us how to love. So he loved and he followed the rules. And because of that, because he was so loving and so rule-following, they brutally murdered him. Right?
Because that's how it works at school. Like the girl that always follows the rules and is nice to everyone, everybody hates her and she gets expelled. Like that's... Right? No. That's not how that works.
So what we know, the primary thing about Christianity is that Jesus went to a cross. And the problem with both of these viewpoints, if the Bible is primarily about us following rules or if the Bible is primarily about us being loving, neither one of those accurately, intelligently explains the cross. If you're just supposed to follow rules, why did Jesus die? If it's about your behavior, why did Jesus die? And if you're just supposed to be loving and if God is just loving, like he's just out there floating in a field of warm fuzzies. And when he thinks about you, he giggles in his heart.
If that's the case, if that's God, if he's just some love force out there in the universe, then what is the cross? How does that make any sense whatsoever? The problem with both of these viewpoints is that they're really incomplete. They don't make sense of what the Bible actually holds up as primary. What the Bible says, no, no, this is the main thing you need to focus on is a cross, is that Jesus died. And so let's go to Matthew chapter 27 and try to figure out why that would be primary and how that helps us understand what the Bible really is about and what the point actually is.
So we're going to read through Matthew chapter 27, we're just going to talk a little bit about what we see here, what we're told here, what these eyewitnesses relate to us here. And then we're going to jump to 1 Corinthians to try to help explain it. So what we're doing right now is we're just going to look at it and then we're going to jump over and say, okay, if that's the main thing, then what does it mean? Why is it the main thing? Why does it matter? 27, we're going to start in verse 57.
When it was evening, there came a rich man. This is the evening that Jesus was crucified. Jesus is still on the cross. There came a rich man from Arimathea named Joseph, who was also a disciple of Jesus. That meant he followed him. He went to Pilate, that's the Roman governor, and asked for the body of Jesus.
Then Pilate ordered it to be given to him. So it, Jesus is dead. He's a thing at this point. He's a corpse. Pilate ordered it to be given to him, Jesus' body. And Joseph took the body, the dead body of Jesus, wrapped it in a clean linen shroud, and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had cut in the rock.
And he rolled a great stone to the entrance of the tomb and went away. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary, that's Jesus' mother, were there sitting opposite the tomb. So they saw where the dead Jesus was placed. The next day, that is the day of preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered before Pilate. So those are the people who killed him.
And they say, Sir, we remember how this imposter said while he was still alive that after three days I will rise. Therefore, order the tomb to be made secure until the third day, lest his disciples go and steal him away and tell the people he has risen from the dead, and the last fraud will be worse than the first. So Pilate said to them, You have a guard of soldiers. Go make it as secure as you can. So they went and made the tomb secure by sealing the stone and setting a guard.
Okay, so they kill Jesus, and then they go to Pilate and they say, Hey, thanks for killing Jesus. But Jesus, when he walked around, used to tell people that he wasn't going to stay dead. And so we need to put some guards around his body. So they won't steal him, hide him, bury him somewhere else and go, He's alive! That's actually really smart. That was a good plan.
Like, let's seal the tomb. So they put a seal on the tomb, and they put guards to guard the tomb so nobody could come steal the body. They're not afraid Jesus is going to try to get out. They just are afraid somebody's going to try to come take him. Chapter 28. Now, after the Sabbath, so the Sabbath is the Saturday, toward the dawn of the first day of the week, that's Sunday.
That's why we celebrate Easter on Sunday. That's today. Good morning. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. So these are the two people who saw where Jesus was buried.
And 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. His appearance was like lightning and his clothing white as snow. This guy was hard to look at. Aggressively shiny, maybe is a way to put that. His clothing was as white as snow.
And for fear of him, the guards trembled and became like dead men. Okay, I don't think it means they died. I think it means they probably just like passed out. Because there was an earthquake and then a lightning guy pushes the stone away and then just sits on it and like looks at you. And your job is to not let that happen. At this point though, I think they look at him and they're like, there's this moment of, should we fight this guy?
And then immediately there's this moment of, no, that ain't happening. And then I think they look at each other and they're like, tin like you sleep. Just, just late. We just, we just going to lay down. Fight over. I probably just passed out.
Like, boom, earthquake, stone, guy, eye contact, lightning, close, and boom, out. So, they at least deserve a demotion. They have done their job poorly. But the angel said to the women. So, women didn't get terrified. I mean, they're scared in some, some form or fashion, but not, they didn't pass out.
Do not be afraid. Thank you. That's the first thing. If you see an angel, that's the first thing you want them to say. You meet an angel and he doesn't start with, do not be afraid. You should be afraid.
Do not be afraid for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here for he has risen. As he said, yeah. Woo. Look, if we're going to, like, you either got to woo or just don't do it. Like, we missed our chance.
We can't go back. We can't go back. I know most of us are white, but you got to, we got to up it up a little bit. I know we don't usually, woo. I know we don't usually, we'll, we'll work later. We'll get to baptize people.
We'll get to holler some more. Do not be afraid for I know that you seek Jesus who has crucified. He is not here for he has risen. As he said, come, see the place where he lay. So, he says, you can come in the tomb. You can see that it's empty.
Jesus told you he was going to rise and he did. Then go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead. And behold, behold, he is going before you to Galilee. There you will see him. See, I have told you. So, they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy and ran to tell his disciples.
And behold, Jesus met them and said greetings. And they came up and took hold of his feet and worshipped him. Then Jesus said to them, do not be afraid. Go tell my brothers to go to Galilee and there they will see me. So, if you, Jesus told people he was God and he told people that he was going to be murdered. And then he told people that he was going to rise again.
And then he was murdered and then he rose again. And that's why they grab his feet and worshipped him. Because he said he was God and that this was going to happen. And once he actually, it happened and he came back to life, then it was like, oh, you must actually be God. Like, what you said must actually be true. So, they fall down and worshipped him.
And Christianity says it's not just about God's love and Jesus being loving. It's not just about rules and Jesus being a good moral teacher. The point of Christianity is that Jesus went to a cross, that he died and that he rose again. That's the point. That the tomb is empty. That's what we celebrate.
This is the major holiday for Christians. Easter. The tomb is empty. Now, the question is, why is that the point? I mean, it sounds nice. It proves he was God, I guess, that Jesus died.
He rose again. He's not in the tomb anymore. But why do we celebrate that? Why is that the point? So, let's jump to 1 Corinthians. It's going to be to the right.
And it should be on the screen. It'll be page 624. If your Bible looks like this. If your Bible doesn't look like this, it's to the right. It's going to say 1 Corinthians at the top. 624, chapter 15.
This is Paul helping us understand why the cross, why the empty tomb is primary. Why we would actually want to celebrate that. 17, verse 17. And if Christ, that's Jesus. If Christ has not been raised, did not come back from the dead, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then all those who have fallen asleep, he means those who have died in Christ, believing in Christ, is what he's saying there, have perished.
They're just dead. And if in Christ we have hope only in this life or in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. So what Paul says is if Christ didn't rise from the dead, if what we celebrate on Easter isn't true, then people should feel sorry for us. And we're everything we believe is a lie, is a waste, is dumb and useless. That's what Paul's saying. He's saying that the cross, the empty tomb, are so vital to Christianity that if you take them out, just what, he taught us to love, just he taught us to follow rules, it's a waste of time.
We should be pitied. People should feel sorry for us because without the empty tomb we have nothing. So here's what he says. But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. So he's the first one who would die and rise from the grave and be brought back to God.
For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive. So this will take just a second to explain what he's saying there. What he's saying is that through Adam, so way back in history, Adam and Eve, famous duo, worse than Bonnie and Clyde, caused more problems for everybody. Adam and Eve. So he says back in the day, Adam and Eve were created in a relationship with God.
They were designed to exist in a loving, harmonious relationship. And Adam sins. And when Adam sins, when Adam rebels, he brings death into the world. That death didn't exist, but death now reigns from Adam to us. Like death has taken over because we're all sinful. And we're born sinful.
We all innately rebel against God. This becomes like obvious to us in different ways. Like some of you, maybe you work law enforcement. Maybe you work social services. Like some of us get to see sinfulness and depravity and brokenness in the world on a daily basis. Others of us are a little bit more separated from it.
But there's sometimes in life it just becomes clear. So when we started planning this church, we started this church up and we were starting to do some kid city stuff. We were going to work with children. One of the things we had to put in our children's handbook for your sweet little baby angels was what to do when one child bites another child. Did y'all know that? We come from a race of biters.
Look around the room. Some of these people sitting next to you all dressed up looking nice today had to be taught forcefully and repeatedly not to bite other humans. Had to be taught. Had to be trained. Like this isn't an appropriate way. Like if you're in a business meeting and it goes poorly, you can't jump up from your desk and be like, ah!
Like you can't do it. And people have seen too much zombie shows at this point. It would freak everybody out. You can't bite people. Like you have to teach children to share. And even as we grow older and we know I should share, I should be kind, I should be gracious.
We still don't want to. It's still really hard. Like I mostly just want other people to share. The time I see this most is when my sweet little wife reaches her grubby hand across the table and takes something off of my plate. And in that moment, something deep and flaming wells up inside of me. And I really have to think, dude, that's your wife.
She can have everything on your plate she wants. But there's part of me that's like... Especially when I'm like, do you want some of this? And she's like, no, I'm not hungry. And then I make it. And then she's like, can I have half of that?
And I'm like, I don't want to fight you. But there's in me like I have to actually go back to like preschool and go, share? You should share. Sharing is good. And be like, mm-hmm. Smile at her.
You want some more? Say no. Say no. Please say no. Say no. No, I'm good.
Okay, but you can have as much as you want. That's good though if you ain't going to eat it. Like... I know sharing is good. It has never actually felt good to me. I just know that it's good because I've been taught that.
Like there's... We know we're supposed to be generous. We know we're supposed to be kind. We know we're supposed to be gracious. And then we know we're supposed to forgive. And then we actually have something to forgive somebody of?
Mm-mm. Mm-mm. I could forgive a lot of things but not this thing. We know we're supposed to be generous. But then somebody says, hey, can I borrow some money?
Mm-mm. I'm pretty strapped right now. Like we just... We... Since Adam, all of us are busted. And here's the point.
Here's the reason why. God made the world good. We live in a world created by a gracious, loving God. So we understand that we ought to be gracious and loving and generous and kind. But we walk around in bodies that have been busted up by Adam.
And our sin overwhelms us. And the truth is, the more we try to be not sinful, the harder it gets. So that's what Paul's going to say as we keep moving through here. We're going to jump down to... Jump over a page if you're in this Bible. We're going to look at 57 as kind of Paul wraps this up.
Verse 54, sorry. As Paul wraps this up. When the perishable puts on the imperishable and mortal puts on immortality, then we shall come to pass the saying that is written. So he's quoting this old saying, saying this is what happens through the resurrection. This is what happens through what Jesus accomplished for us. Death is swallowed up in victory.
Oh, death, where is your victory? Oh, death, where is your sting? The sting of death is sin. And the power of sin is the law. So here's what he's saying.
Sin, death is a problem for us because sin leads us to death. And then when we're sinful and we die and we stand before God, we have nothing to offer him. Except for our rebellion and our guilt and our shame, we have nothing to bring to him. That our sin goes before God and he looks at our life and he doesn't say, you're welcome. He says, you've rebelled against me. You've broken the law.
We're in trouble. That's why death is so terrible because sin goes with us. And the law only makes sin stronger. It only shows how much more we fail. My dad and my mom, when I was growing up, they both worked. And I've got two brothers and we were all kind of, you know, little at the same time and just a couple of years apart each.
And when my dad would go to work and my mom would be at home watching us, and sometimes we had people watch us while they both worked. But when my dad would go to work and my mom would be home watching us, my dad would always come home and he'd say, you know, just some of the laundry wasn't done. Maybe dinner wasn't cooked. Maybe one of us looked like a hot mess, was just wearing underwear and had ketchup spattered all over us for some reason. Like he just, every time he would come home and the house wasn't clean and he just got the feeling like, you know, he would look at my mom and be like, you can do this.
Like you can get everything done. It's possible. Like he just assumed she was just not really trying that hard. And so he said a couple of times that when she would go to work and he was watching us by ourselves, he just decided, I'm going to get it done. I'm going to do everything. I'm going to cook.
I'm going to do all the laundry. Kids are going to look right when she gets home. House is going to be nice. And he said every time it was like a race against the clock and she would walk in the door. One of us wouldn't have pants on. Something would be on fire.
Laundry wouldn't be done. Like he just, he was like, y'all wouldn't stop like puking and bleeding and getting stuff messed up. There was just no way. There was no way to get it done. Like he just couldn't. And the truth was he was a really good mom until he tried.
And then he was pretty terrible at it. And for most of us, we think, the reason the power of sin is in the law is that most of us think, no, I'm a pretty nice person. I'm pretty kind. I'm pretty good. God's got to kind of love me. Like I've got good intentions.
And the truth is once we actually start seeing what the law is, what it takes to be perfect before God, and we actually try to do it, it becomes massively difficult. Us trying to behave and be good only shows how far away from it we are. Every single person in this room has nothing to offer God that makes you redeemable. We have all sinned. We have all fallen short. We all deserve death and hell and punishment.
That's the place we stand before a holy God. Each of us is headed towards death, hell, and destruction, except Jesus went to the cross. Except for Jesus went to the cross and died for our sin. He took our sin. You see, Jesus hadn't sinned. He didn't deserve death.
He hadn't rebelled. He didn't deserve to be punished or crushed. But he was. And that's why when Christians say he died for our sins, what they mean is he didn't die for his own. He died for ours. And because he didn't deserve to die, he actually broke death and rose again from the grave.
Because he hadn't earned death. He just took ours for us. So God dies to pay for our sin and then rises again so that all of us who place faith in him can have life. And that's the point of this. Death is swallowed up in victory. Oh, death, where is your victory?
Oh, death, where is your sting? The sting of death is sin and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through Jesus Christ our Lord. Do you know why we sing to Jesus? Why we holler? Why in a minute when people are getting baptized, we're going to clap and yell and be excited?
It's because Jesus has won the victory for us. When I went to college and I played college football, my freshman year I was redshirted, so I just went to practice. I didn't do anything. And we almost won a championship my freshman year. We really should have. It was a game that kind of went south, but we were there.
We were one game away. We would have won the championship. If we had, I would have been given a ring. And I would have worn it on Sundays and tapped it on the... No, I'm just kidding. But I would have been given a championship ring.
And I would have been a champion. And what would I have done? Not a dang thing. Except for go to practice. Like I wouldn't have done anything, but I would have been victorious. I would have been a champion through other people on my behalf.
You know how when you go to watch a game that you just are a fan of, and they win? You know what you say when it's over? We won. And sometimes when they lose, you go, yeah, they lost. Because you're smart. But when they win, you say, we won.
Why? Because they won on behalf of their city. They won on behalf of their fans. That's why when it's... The chips are down, and they're losing at halftime, and they come back out, and they rally, and they finally score. You jump up, lose your mind, kick something over, like break your television, because you're so excited that they won.
The reason Christians sing, the reason we gather together in the morning and celebrate, the reason we're going to lose our mind in a minute when people get baptized is because Jesus has won the victory for us. The empty tomb stands as the forever scoreboard that sin does not claim us, sin does not hold us, death has no hold over us any longer. We can have life through Jesus. That's the empty tomb. That's the cross. People say, why would you pick something so bloody and terrible to celebrate?
Why would Christians wear crosses? That's when we were down 40 to nothing at halftime. It's fun to see that now. It's fun to see the moment in history when it looked so bleak, so wrong, so broken, that humanity had gathered together to murder God. And we can celebrate now because it was in that moment that Jesus died for our sin and there's, it's not, he wasn't always on the cross. He was buried in the tomb and he didn't stay in the tomb and he's risen to a throne and we get to celebrate forever that the cross and the empty tomb prove to us that death has no claim over us once we've placed our faith in Jesus.
That our sin and our brokenness no longer holds us. That we have life forever in the one who's given us victory. Who's conquered death on our behalf. So in a minute, five people are gonna be on a screen and they're gonna tell you why they believe in Jesus and then they're gonna get baptized and we're gonna scream and yell and clap because we're celebrating that victory has been given to us through Jesus. That he was good, that he paid our penalty and that we have life forever in him. Through the victory that's been won on our behalf.
Let's pray. God, we thank you that we have victory. We thank you that the tomb is empty and that seals forever our hope in you. That when we place our faith in you, that when we repent of our sin, that we come to you and say, I have nothing to offer but you died for me. I have nothing to bring to the table but you loved me so much that you died for me. That you lived righteously on my behalf.
That you paid for our sin and that you set us free and we praise you for the tomb and we praise you for the people that are getting baptized today to proclaim that. In Jesus' name, amen. Here's what's about to happen. Christians celebrate baptism because it's a symbol that when Jesus was buried, our sin, our shame, our guilt, our brokenness was buried with him. That when he died, death died with him. That all the things that had a hold and a claim over us are gone.
And so we baptize somebody and we say basically they're buried with Jesus. And that when Jesus rose from the grave, he gave life to them because they placed their faith in him. That's what baptism is. It's a celebration that Jesus has won the victory on our behalf.
Mar 27
Easter Sunday
Transcript
Well, my name is Chet Phillips. I'm excited to be here. We're going to be looking in 1 Corinthians 15 tonight. We're going to spend most of our time there. We will jump at one point back to the Old Testament. We'll be in 1 Corinthians chapter 15.
If you don't have a Bible, just hold your hand up and we'll get some to you. So just hold your hand up so we'll hand them out. We've got some guys that will be coming around. If you don't own a Bible, take that one home. That's our gift to you. We want you to have a Bible.
If you do own a Bible, leave that one here. Bring yours with you next time or we'll let you borrow it again. So it will be 1 Corinthians chapter 15. This is the Apostle Paul writing to the church in Corinth. And so this is what he says, verse 1. Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you.
Gospel meaning good news. Of the good news I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved. If you hold fast to the word I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received. That Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures. That he was buried.
That he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures. Okay, we're going to stop for just a second. Paul says, I delivered you as of first importance. As primary, as foundational. I delivered you as of first importance that Christ died in accordance with the scriptures. That he was buried and that he rose again in accordance with the scriptures.
You may have heard a lot of things about what the Bible is about. You may have heard a lot of things about taught from the Bible. That it's some sort of a do's and don'ts list. So it's the do's and don'ts of the destined and damned. Or it's God's guidebook to life. It's God's road map to life.
You may have heard somebody open it up and teach you how to 10 steps to be a better whatever. To be a better father, a better wife, a better son. Paul says, I delivered to you as of first importance the gospel. That Jesus died, that he was buried and that he rose again. The Bible doesn't come out swinging against evolution. The Bible doesn't come out joining a political party.
Jesus doesn't vote straight ticket Republican. I'm sorry. He doesn't. He never rode an elephant. He did ride a donkey, but he wasn't a Democrat. He wasn't.
I hate to break it to you. He shatters all of our preconceived notions. He shatters all of our political parties. He doesn't come out chasing after some cause or or anything other. First importance is that Jesus Christ came to earth, that he died for sinners, that he was buried and that he rose again. That's what the Bible is going to come out swinging on.
It's going to come out fighting for pointing to Jesus. Paul says, according to the scriptures, Old Testament and New Testament, New Testament fighting for and pointing to Jesus. So if you're in here tonight and you'd say, I'm a believer, I'm a Christian, I follow Jesus. That's first importance for you. That's foundational. You grow in the gospel.
You don't grow away from it. You don't enter in by the gospel and then learn the deep things of God. You grow in the gospel. That's the foundation for us. And if you're here tonight and you're just checking out this whole Jesus thing, we're glad you're here. We think this is a very safe place to come check out Jesus.
We're not going to be pushy about things and we're all rough and messed up. And we just want you to invite you to hang out and be messed up with us. We all need Jesus. None of us are special or great, but we believe that Jesus is. We'd say, welcome. Come hang out.
And when you approach the Bible, this is of first importance. So you've got to answer and wrestle with the question, did Christ die for sinners? Was he buried? And did he rise again? That's it. That's the one you've got to wrestle with.
Then you can argue about study and dig into all the rest of it, but that's of first importance. And so that's what Paul comes out and says. And so that's what we're going to be digging into tonight. You see, Jesus was a good man, but that's not why people follow him. He was a moral man, but that's not why we're in this room tonight. He taught good things.
That's not why we're here. We're here because he was crucified. He died. He was put in a tomb. And then on Sunday this morning, he walked out. That's why we're here.
That's why people follow Jesus. That's why billions, with a B, people gathered today to celebrate Easter because of this. And so that's what we're going to talk about tonight. So we're going to look at. So we're just going to walk through this passage.
Verse 3. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with Scripture. Okay, so Christ is Jesus. You've heard Jesus Christ. Christ is not his last name. It's an office.
It means Messiah. So his last name would have been Son of Joseph is how they would have said his last name. So Christ isn't his last name. Christ is the office. So this is Jesus.
The Bible tells us that Jesus was God who lived a perfect life. He was the Son of God, came to earth, lived a perfect life in our place. He says, Christ died for our sins. I want to unpack that real quick. God created and designed the world to exist in relationship with himself, and we have done that very, very poorly. We have loved.
The Bible would say that sin is us loving anything else more than God. Us loving and pursuing and setting as our highest aim anything else more than God. And we know this is true, that when we love something over and against something else, it messes us up. We have disordered love. So that if I love success, or someone loves success more than anything, then they'll work really long hours and neglect their children.
Or if you love your status or approval more than the truth, then you'll lie and you'll bend the truth to make yourself look good. Because you love that more than you love honor and you love dignity. If someone loved wealth, if money was their highest aim, then they'd be willing to do whatever it took to get there. So they'll bend the rules as much as they have to to get to money. And so the Bible is going to say that when we come out loving anything else more than God, when he's not our highest aim, that we've rebelled against him and that we have sin. And so Jesus comes living a perfect, sinless life to die for sinners.
So Paul says that he delivered you as a first portents, that what I also receive, that Christ died for our sins. The Bible says in Romans 6.23 that the wages of sin is death, that what we earn when we sin is death. So we punch the clock and we earn at the end of the time to hand us a paycheck and that's death. That's all we can earn with our rebellion. That's all we can earn with our sin. Jesus never sinned, so he never earned death.
And then he died in our place, swapping places with us. So Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures. That's verse 3. We're going to flip back to Isaiah 53. It's kind of in the middle of your Bible. This was written, what we're about to read was written 700 years before Jesus was born.
So we're going to come back to 1 Corinthians. We're flipping to Isaiah 53. So hold your finger where 1 Corinthians is because we're coming right back to it. Unless you like to live dangerously and then you can take your finger out. But you're going to have to find it again later.
So anyway, Isaiah 53. This was written by the prophet Isaiah 700 years before Jesus was born. So this is what Paul is saying when he died in accordance with the scriptures. It's over and over again in the Old Testament. We're just going to read this one chapter just for the sake of time. Who has believed what he has heard from us?
And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For he grew up before him like a young plant and like a root out of dry ground. He had no form or majesty that we should look at him and no beauty that we should desire him. This is talking about Jesus. There was nothing innately wonderful about him. He was a Galilean peasant.
He wasn't in a palace. He wasn't a king. He didn't strut around and people automatically bow to him. There was nothing, no beauty, no form of majesty that we should look at him. Verse 3. He was despised and rejected by men.
A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And as one from whom men hide their faces. He was despised and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. Old Testament law said that anyone who was hung on a tree was cursed by God.
And so Jesus was nailed to a cross on our behalf. He was stricken, smitten by God. Verse 5. But he was wounded for our transgressions. And he was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace.
So he took our punishment so that we might have peace. And with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone 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 like a lamb that is led to the slaughter. And like a sheep before it shears is silent. So he opened not his mouth. So Jesus when he was on trial. When he was being accused. When they were taking him and beating him.
When they were putting a bag over his head and punching him. So he couldn't see where the blows were coming from. So he couldn't flinch. He couldn't prepare. He never defended himself. He never stepped up and told him.
Wait I don't deserve this. He kept his mouth shut. By oppression and judgment he was taken away. And as for his generation. Who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living. Stricken for the transgression of my people.
And they made his grave with the wicked. He was crucified in between two thieves. And with a rich man in his death. He used a borrowed tomb from a rich man. Named Joseph of Arimathea. He borrowed a tomb.
Which was okay. He wasn't planning on using it long. With a rich man in his death. Although he had done no violence. And there was no deceit in his mouth. So Jesus was sinless.
Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him. He has put him to grief. When his soul makes an offering for guilt. He shall see his offspring. He shall prolong his days. So Jesus died for guilt.
And then those who believe are his offspring. Or those that come from that. They're set free from them. Out of the anguish of his soul. He shall see and be satisfied. By his knowledge shall the righteous one.
My servant make many to be accounted righteous. And he shall bear their iniquities. That Jesus took our sin. Our iniquity. And he makes us be accounted righteous. That we aren't actually righteous.
That before God we are. Because he took our sin. And gave us his righteousness. Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many. And he shall divide the spoil with the strong. Because he poured out his soul to death.
And was numbered with the transgressors. Yet he bore the sin of many. And makes intercession for the transgressors. 1 Corinthians 15. So that's what Paul's talking about.
When he said Christ died in accordance with the scriptures. That Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures. This was not a new idea. This had been being prophesied. Over and over and over again. That someone was going to come.
Someone was going to be stricken. Chastised so that we might have peace. That through his stripes we would be healed. That we would. As Zechariah said. We would look on the one whom they pierced.
That Jesus was going to die. So that we could have life. Okay. So. Verse 3. For I deliver to you as of first importance.
This is it. This is foundational. That what I also received. That Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures. That he was buried. Okay.
Okay. So far. Weird. But relatively normal. It's weird. But it's pretty normal.
Okay. So. Jesus. It says he died for our sins. So that's.
That's a little weird. People can die for a cause. Or they could be martyred for something. Or they could be. You know. Die for a country or something.
When it says he died for our sins though. It's talking about an actual trans. First action. Where our iniquity was laid on him. Our sin was laid on him. And he was crushed on behalf of us.
And he actually accomplished something in his death. Not just. You know. He died for his country. That kind of thing. So.
So that's a little weird. But he died and was buried. That's pretty normal. Pretty. Most people do that. I was reading a study the other day.
And I don't remember who. Put it out. But the death rate. On planet earth. Is hovering right around 100% right now. It stays up there for the most part.
From what I can tell. The mortality rates. Staying pretty high guys. So it's like. Something like 10 out of 10 people. Are going to die.
Yeah. I know. It's crazy. I'm thinking they should fix this at some point. So. That's pretty normal.
He died. That's what. That's what people do. He died and was buried. That's pretty normal. Okay.
Especially if you crucify someone. That's. That's what happens. He was executed. That's just a process. By which we speed up death.
And so he was. Dead and buried. Verse 4. That he was buried. That he was raised. On the third day.
In accordance with the scriptures. Okay. Now that got really weird. You see. The Bible is going to come out. And say that Jesus didn't.
Stay. Dead. That. On. Friday. He was crucified.
That he bled out. That after he died. Professional executioners. Said he was dead. And then. Just to be certain.
Took a spear. And ran it into his side. Piercing his heart. Then they took him down. Wrapped him in claws. And put him in a cave.
He was dead. Dead. Buried. And then on Sunday. He was walking. And talking.
That's weird. He was alive. Not. Not an apparition. He was alive. See.
This is why we get together. And celebrate. This is why Christians. Billions of Christians. Are all over the world. To celebrate.
Because Jesus. Didn't stay dead. He didn't come down here. Just to start some new form of religion. He didn't. Because he didn't do any of the things.
You're supposed to do. To start some new form of religion. He wrote down. Zero things. That we know of. Zero.
Like if I was going to start a new religion. First thing you do. Is you write out. How you get to be in the religion. So like.
Eating at Cracker Barrel. Makes you more holy. Like you know. I'd have a list of things. You know. I'd be up at the top somewhere.
Like biscuits. Equal sacrament. Like I don't know. It's like. It's important. He didn't do this.
The only time we ever know. That he wrote anything down. It was in the sand. If you want. Just. I'm going to help you all out.
If you want. What you're writing down. To last a while. Sand. Is a horrible medium. For that.
It really is. That's why. When you have like. Your beach girlfriend. You write that out in sand. Doug.
Hearts. Jess. Until the tide comes in. If you. Heart. Jess a little more.
Get a tree. And a knife. You know. Or do something classy. Like. A putt putt place.
You know. Just carve that in. At one of the little things. At a putt plus. Or. Or.
You know. Put it in stone. Write it down or something. But if you write it in sand. So he.
He didn't do. What it takes to. To start a religious movement. He got. A ragtag bunch of scrubs. That he.
Taught things to. That he built with. But he wasn't. Trying to push forward. Some religious agenda. Every time there.
A bunch of people got around. Jesus said. His hardest. Stuff. And ran people away. John chapter 6.
One of my favorite. Chapters in the bible. He tells people. To drink his blood. And to eat his flesh. And what he's talking about.
Is that they. You have to embrace. The cross. To be a Jesus follower. That Jesus following. Does not come.
Without the price of death. And they said. We think it's weird. That you said that. So he said it.
Six more. Times. And then they leave. And I think he was like. Good. I didn't think.
I didn't want to say it. Seven times. My goodness. And he looks at his disciples. And says. Y'all leaving too?
And they were like. No. And that's weird. But no. We're going to stick around. He didn't do.
What he was supposed to. To start a religion. But he didn't come. To start a religion. He came. To die.
Of first importance. Jesus Christ. Came to live. A perfect life. And to be crucified. On our behalf.
To be buried. As scripture said. He was going to be. And to on the third day. Rise again. That's what he came to do.
And that's exactly. What he did. That Jesus. Died. In our place. And he rose.
You see. If we just had Friday. We just had good Friday. And they said. That Jesus died. For our sin.
That would be nice. But we wouldn't know. We could say that. But we wouldn't know. We'd always be. Stuck.
Going. Did he really? Did he really accomplish it? But we don't just have Friday. We have Sunday. When Jesus rose.
And God put his seal. Of approval on him. And assured us. That our hope. Is not in vain. But that Jesus is alive.
And that the grave. Has been conquered. And that we can have life in him. And that our sin. Can be covered. All right.
Let's keep going. Four. That he was buried. That he was raised on the third day. In accordance with the scriptures. And then he appeared to Cephas.
Which Cephas is just. Peter. It's just in a different language. But both mean rock. Appeared to Cephas. Then to the twelve.
Then he appeared to more than. Five hundred brothers. At what time. Most of whom are still alive. Though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James.
Then to all the apostles. Okay. So. Jesus. Comes back to life. And starts walking around.
And talking to people. He appears to five hundred people. At one time. I love that Paul puts that in there. And he said. Some have fallen asleep.
But most of them are still alive. So what Paul is saying. Is I'm writing this. When there's a bunch of people. Who can. Verify what I'm saying.
At this time. When he wrote this. Cephas was still around. James was still around. All they had to do. Was be like.
Hey. I got this letter from Paul. Is that true? Yeah. That's true. Oh.
Okay. Like that was easy. Like. You could fact check this. It wasn't. Some kind of something.
Written hundreds of years later. He's writing it. He said. Most of these people are still alive. You can go ask them. But.
Jesus. All right. So Jesus. Dead. Alive. Eating.
Laughing. Walking. Talking. Alive. Still had scars. But alive.
He shows up. I love when. He shows up to his disciples at one point. And they freak out because they think he's a ghost. Which is appropriate. That's how death works.
You don't see those people again. Like. You don't talk to somebody and they're like. Yeah. I had to go to my grandmother's funeral. But it's okay.
I'll see her at vacation this summer. No. You won't. That's not how that works. So Jesus died.
And then he shows up and starts talking to him. And they all think he's a ghost. And I love this. So they're freaking out. They think he's a ghost. And Jesus says.
Do ghosts have flesh and blood? And then he takes some food and he eats it. To prove that he was actually alive. He was actually there. What I love about that was. Jesus doesn't say.
Hey fool. Ghosts aren't real. What he says is. Ghosts don't have feet. It's like. Wait a second.
I got to have a follow up question. Like. It's almost like he smacked one of them. Could a ghost do that? I don't know. I've never met one.
But Jesus shows up. And he was alive. He ate with him. He showed Thomas the scars in his hand and in his side. He was alive. He really rose.
Really had a body. Let people touch him alive. So Jesus died and he rose. And that's good news. And I'm about to show you. Give you an example of why that is good news.
So. Verse 7. Then he appeared to James. Then to all the apostles. Last of all. As to one untimely born.
He appeared also to me. For I am the least of the apostles. Unworthy to be called an apostle. Because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God.
I am what I am. And his grace. Grace just means unmerited favor. Unearned love. It's grace. It's just given to us.
And his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary. I worked harder than any of them. Though it was not I. But the grace of God that is with me.
So Paul says. I'm unworthy to be called an apostle. Because I persecuted the church of God. Let me tell you why this is such good news. Paul. Was the worst.
And that's great. Because that means I've got hope. Paul persecuted the church. Anybody who had the name of Christian. He hunted them down. Killed them.
Enjoyed it. He said he was zealous for it. He was looking for more opportunities. To go snatch people out of their homes. Have them arrested. Or murdered.
He was zealous for it. He had papers of people he could go arrest. And was on his way to do it. And Jesus showed up. And should have crushed him. But Jesus shows up.
And says. No I'm going to give you grace. You haven't earned it. And you don't deserve it. I'm going to give you grace. And that's great news.
Because you know who can get unearned grace. Everybody. You know who gets to be a Christian. Murderers. Liars. Perverts.
Addicts. Broken people. Thieves. Religious. Uptight. Snobby.
Prudes. People. Get to be Christians. None of us. Has anything. That we bring to God.
And say. Look at what I've earned. Look at what I've done. Look at what I've accomplished. None of us. We all get.
Grace. Which is. Unmerited. Unearned. Jesus's. Love on us.
For no other reason. Than. He's good. And he's loving. You see Paul. It had nothing to do with Paul's goodness.
Or badness. It had everything to do with Jesus's. Goodness. Your relationship to Jesus. Has nothing whatsoever to do with your goodness. Or your badness.
It has everything to do. With Jesus's. Goodness. And regardless of how messed up we are. Which I'm going to be honest with you. Very messed up.
Jesus is very. Very. Good. And his grace is sufficient. For all of us. And that's why that's.
Good. News. You see. Paul. When he met Jesus. He had a Friday problem.
Some of us in this room. We have a Friday problem. We just had. Good Friday. We just celebrated. Good Friday.
When Paul met Jesus. He had a Friday problem. Which meant that he. Did not know. That he deserved. To be crushed.
For his sin. Paul did not realize. That what happened to Jesus. On the cross. Was for Paul. That it was the punishment.
That Paul deserved. That Paul. Deserved to have met out on him. That it was met out on Jesus. In his place. Some of us are in here.
And that's. That's where we are. We've. Minimalized. We tried to act like. Our sin isn't a big deal.
That our rebellion. Our love of other things. Other than God. Our disordered love. Aren't a big deal. Aren't a problem.
That. That's some sort of social construct. That. That's not a real thing. We have. Sin.
And even for the people in the room. That would say. I don't believe in this whole concept of sin. I would ask this question. Why do you feel guilty? Why do you feel like you don't measure up?
Why do you often feel like you're falling short of some ideal that you don't believe exists? We have sin. And some of us need to realize that Jesus on Friday paid for our sin. That he was beaten. Brutally beaten. That he was hung on a cross.
Nailed through his hands and his feet. That he hung there for six hours. And that he died. Because we have sin. That deserves to be punished. So Paul when he realized his sin.
Then had a Sunday problem. Which was now that I see my sin. Now that I know how unworthy I am. I deserve to be crushed. And I'm not sure that you're capable of taking this away. But see Jesus rose on Sunday.
Conquering sin on our behalf. That our sin can be paid out on Friday. And taken away on Sunday. That Jesus in the gospel. Rescues us both from the penalty. And the power of our sin.
That he takes it away from us. So some of us in here are saying. I know I'm a sinner. I know I'm broken. I know I'm messed up. I know this isn't right.
But Jesus rose from the grave. He takes away all sin. There are no sins too big for Jesus to take away. There is no problem too big for Jesus to handle. You sin like a human. And he saves like a God.
You are not bigger and badder than Jesus is. And he is capable of rescuing all of us. And it's given freely to us. And this is very good news. That we can admit our sin. Admit that we're broken.
And be set free. And be rescued. And redeemed. I love naps. They're the best. It's an awkward transition.
But it was a really good statement. That's true. I love naps. I love them. They're the best. And so any chance I get.
I'll take a nap. I can take a nap. I can fall asleep inside of like five minutes. So I can take a nap for like seven. Like and I'll be fine. Like that's great.
Seven minute naps. Wonderful. So I remember one time when Anna and I first got married. We had. I don't know what we've been doing. We were worn out.
Or we had a day off or something. So we decided to take a nap. And it was one of those naps where I slept on my face. Like you know how good that is. And you just. You just.
You sleep flat out. Like that's how tired I was. Like I didn't even bother to get comfortable. I just like slumped over. And was sound asleep. And.
But we had to be somewhere. So I had set an alarm. And I had an old school alarm that I've had since. I was starting middle school. And that thing. Still have it.
It's one of those. Eh. Eh. Eh. Eh. Alarms.
Like the ones that are pure evil. It's like. I think it's made out of cats or something. It's awful. And so. It makes that.
Eh. Eh. And so I had set that alarm. It goes off. I mean I was out of it. But I start waking up.
And I'm like. Oh. Okay. So I sit up. My alarm's going. Eh.
Eh. Eh. And I reach for it. And I reach for it again. I had been sleeping like this. And both of my arms were sound asleep from here down.
I mean. Done. But. This was like the best I could do. And so the thing. And it's torture.
Because now I'm awake staring at this thing. I just woke up. Which. I'm grumpy. And this alarm's going. Eh.
Eh. Eh. And so I'm sitting there. And I look over at Anna. She's gone. Doesn't even notice it.
And so I'm looking at her like. I really wish she would help with this. But she. She's. She's asleep like this. Like every once in a while.
I swear she's sleeping. Knows I'm looking at her. And she's just faking it. She's sleeping like she's on the front of a Hallmark card or something. And so I'm staring at her. And it's not even.
She hadn't even flinched. And I'm going. Wake up. You know. And so I'm thinking like. What do I do?
Do I go back and forth. Get my arms going. And then I could. I could pop her. You know. I guess I could have talked loudly.
But I was half asleep. I'm not thinking through this right. To wake her up. So. But she looked so.
You know. Just. Like I just was like. Well. I can't. So.
I turned back around. My alarm's going off. Still. Eh. Eh. Can't do anything about it.
I was really glad. That it was just the alarm that had gone off. And it wasn't like a home invasion or something. I'd have been in trouble. Unless. I've thought about this.
Unless I could have convinced them. That I knew something they didn't know. Because what would have happened was. I would have jumped out of bed. And gone. And then tried to kick them.
And they'd have thought. I don't know what kind of kung fu stuff I'm getting into here. But you can take it down brother. Eh. So I'm sitting there.
Staring at this alarm. And there's nothing I can do about it. I look over at Anna. She's completely oblivious to the fact that we have a problem. And I know that we have a problem. And can't do anything about it.
And the truth is. Some of us are sitting in those two seats tonight. Some of you are sitting and saying. I know I have sin. I know I have brokenness. I've been trying to fix it.
And I can't. And some of you. Have been oblivious to it. But it's still a problem. And what we needed. Was for a third party to walk in.
And fix the situation. And what every single one of us in this room needed. Was for a third party to step in. And fix the situation. And his name was Jesus. And he lived a perfect sinless life.
On our behalf. And he was crushed. For our iniquities. He was. The chastisement of us. Was placed on him.
For our sins. He was beaten. He was bruised. By his stripes. We can be healed. That he would make many.
To be accounted righteous. Because he would take on. The iniquities of the world. Jesus stepped in. And he solved the problem. By going to the cross.
And he assured our hope of salvation. By rising from the dead. That in Jesus. We can have life. And hope. Everyone in this room.
Has sin. And the truth is. Your sin. Will be paid for. The question is. Will it be paid by you.
Or by Jesus. At some point. We will stand before the creator. Of the universe. Jesus has given us. The opportunity.
To have our sin. Paid for. Forever. Because sin has. Consequences. Grave.
Consequences. So much so. That the son of God. Had to come to earth. And be crushed for it. But we have the hope.
Of salvation. That we can place. Our faith. In Jesus. And that all of our sin. All of the worst.
Of all of us. Can be placed on him. And he can die for it. And that on Sunday. He can rise again. And take it away forever.
And that through him. We can be accounted. Righteous. That God can look at us. And say. That we're beloved.
That we're cared for. And that we're okay. Because when he looks at us. He sees Jesus. And that's grace. And that's good news.
And that's why billions of people. Have gotten together today. To celebrate that the grave. Is empty. And that Jesus. Is alive.
Man's going to come back up. We're going to sing. And we're going to celebrate. That Jesus has paid our debt. And set us free. That in him we have hope.
And life. Forever. That the grave. Is empty. That Jesus did die. But that he didn't.
Stay dead. Let's pray. God. I thank you. For your grace. I thank you.
That someone like Paul. Who actively. Worked to destroy your church. Can be rescued. Because that gives hope. For all of us.
That we don't earn grace. So that we're all. Able to receive it. God. I pray that you would help us. See our sin.
Very clearly. Feel the weight. Of our sin. Our rebellion. Our love for other things. Other than you.
Very clearly. So that we can know. And love the cross more. So that we can grow. In our love. For the gospel.
More. You said that those. Who are forgiven more. Love more. And God. We pray that you would help us.
See the weight. Of our rebellion. So that we can see. The greatness. Of our God and Savior. We love you.
In Jesus name. Amen.