Introduction: This morning many of us may be wondering what is this color of Easter? When we spread the canvas of Easter and paint the biblical picture, it has many shades. While Jesus walked the earth, His ministry of love, grace, healing, preaching and teaching was disliked by the Jewish priests. Wherever He went, the crowds gathered and the importance of the temple laws and priests began to recede. Jesus resurrecting Lazarus from the dead triggered the process and death of Christ on the cross. These Jewish people were Middle Eastern Asian folks that very much resembled Sunny and I.
As the Jews were colonized by the Romans, they had no authority to sentence anyone to death. Therefore, the Jewish priests pressed the Roman authorities to sentence Jesus to be crucified. These Roman people were Caucasian European folks that took precedence over much of the world. They very much resembled my dear brothers Peter and Pastor Daniel. It was their consent with the Jewish leaders that brought Jesus to the cross. But Christ willingly gave up His life for us to die on the cross.
After being flogged and scourged, while Jesus carried His cross to Calvary, due to exhaustion, and dehydration He fell and had a hard time to get up and carry it again. Therefore, a man among the crowd by the name of Simon from Cyrene volunteered to carry the cross of Christ for Him to Calvary. Cyrene is in Africa on the Eastern part of Libya. Simon very much resembled our brothers Daryl and Pastor Dooley.
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On Good Friday, the Roman soldiers nailed Christ to the cross and lifted Him high for the world to see the God-Man die for our sins. As His blood flowed at Calvary, it covered all the past, present and future sins of all the world. No matter who we are, from where we come, or what our ethnicity, race or culture is, Christ died for us all. His blood turned our darkest sin to white as snow. His blood covered us all just like the waters cover the seas. This is not a message of hatred. It is a message of hope and love. The black man’s face is in this book; the white man’s face is in it; the brown man’s face is in it … the reason you can’t see it is because all our faces are smeared with His blood of love. TRULY HIS LOVE MATTERS!
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WHY DOES HIS LOVE MATTER?
Reason # 1: His Love Matters because Christ came down to earth to SAVE THE LOST.
Jesus didn't come to please the religious crowd. Jesus didn't come to pander to the social crowd. Jesus didn't come to hang out with the wild bunch. Instead, Jesus came with a vision. He came to the world to save those that are lost.
Illustration: The film Amazing Grace was set in the late 1700s. It tells the story of William Wilberforce, a politician who was driven by his faith in Christ to commit his money and energy to abolishing the slave trade in England. In one scene, Wilberforce’s butler finds him praying. The butler asks, “You found God, Sir?” Wilberforce responds, “I think He found me.” We truly don’t realize that we are lost until we are found.
Jesus showed interest in Zacchaeus, a shunned tax collector in Jericho, and included him in the recipients of His salvation plan (Luke 19:1-10). A marginalized and hated man because of his profession, Zacchaeus was desperate to see Jesus and climbed a tree to get a glimpse of Him. When Jesus passed by, He saw Zacchaeus’ desire and told him to come down because he had a divine appointment at his house. Some complained that Jesus was spending time with a sinner. His loving attention changed Zacchaeus’ life. He repented and offered restitution for those he had defrauded. Salvation came to his house.
Jesus’ mission was simple: Diligently search for lost people, whatever their social standing, and offer them God’s salvation plan. As followers of Christ, we too have that as our mission.
Sometimes we encourage sinners to “come to Christ,” which is entirely biblical. However, if Jesus did not come to us first, we would never come to him at all. That’s what it means to be truly lost.
• Lost without God.
• Lost without hope.
• Lost in a tangled web of sin.
• Lost and trapped forever.
What, then, is our hope if we are so hopelessly lost? We find the answer in the words of Jesus, who came to “to seek and to save what was lost.” He did not come as a tourist or a casual visitor or an educator or an itinerant philosopher. Jesus came as a Savior seeking to save the lost.
Illustration: Almost every week we see news about a search-and-rescue mission. It may involve a child who wandered away from a family picnic and is lost, or a hiker stranded on a mountain, or people trapped beneath the rubble following an earthquake. In every case, the people at risk are unable to help themselves. Those who are found and saved usually have lasting gratitude for those who joined in the search and rescued them. There are many among you here this morning that are waiting and seeking the prodigals and the lost in your families. You will not take rest until they are found by Jesus. You are on a search-and-rescue mission like Jesus.
Application: Jesus began His search-and-rescue operation on earth by His life, death, and resurrection. He continues it today through the power of the Holy Spirit, and He graciously invites us to participate with Him by loving those who are lost.
I want you too to know the heart of Jesus, the Son of Man, who came to find and carry back His straying children to their Father, “for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10). No matter how far you may have strayed and how lost you may be, He came to seek and to save you.
How can you respond to the LOVE of Christ? Just like Zacchaeus, this morning you have an opportunity to respond to why God’s love matters …
No matter who you are, each one of us has the blood that flows RED. The blood of Christ that flowed at Calvary, healed us, restored us, revived us and redeemed us.
You could respond with HASTE … OBEDIENCE … JOY … REPENTANCE.
