The Story 26
Easter
April 17, 2011
It’s getting to be golf season and I’m ready to get out there and smack that golf ball . . . I hope. But when you get up at that first hole, my thinking isn’t very positive. I want to hit a great drive, but I’m wondering, why are so many people watching me, and I’m thinking about my stance and grip and still why are there so many people here. Then I think about the fact that I’m using a lousy ball, just encase I hit a lousy shot into the woods. I remind myself to bend my knees and keep my head down, and why didn’t I go to the bathroom. Ugh! I’m not sure why I like the game.
Well, I’ve finally found a foursome to play with, because nobody wants to play with me. You know what it’s like when you get to the 4th hole and someone asks, ‘so what do you do?’ Usually my answer puts them on good behavior, their language changes and the conversation ends.
So, I found these 3 guys to golf with . . . (The 3 Stooges)
Okay, so what? I heard this a couple of weeks ago about what a great golf coach, Bruce Harmon, taught other would be golf coaches. He said, you’re going to see 10 things people are doing wrong with their swing; your job is to pick out the one which causes the other 9. What’s the one thing they’re doing wrong, which causes the other 9. That’s great advice.
So, what does that mean for us? Let me ask you ... are there any issues in your life? I would suspect we all have some issues going on. Do you have issues with your ~
Attitude, temper, sinuses, nerves, pride, bitterness, kids, in-laws, marriage, God, friends, health, income, job. And this doesn’t include international and national issues . . . things like war, poverty, abuse, health care, handguns, road rage, tsunamis and earthquakes. Do you think there are at least 10 things which are wrong in the world and in your life?
So, here’s the question, and I know you’re already a step ahead of me, so you know what I’m going to ask. Do you think there is one root or core issue which is causing the other 9? What do you think? The Bible’s answer is a resounding Yes! There’s a root or core issue from which the others stem. And according to the Bible that problem was dealt with fully and completely at the cross of Jesus Christ. And that problem was addressed by Jesus, on the cross, when He said, “It is finished!” Jesus didn’t start a work on the cross — He didn’t continue a work on the cross — He finished a work on the cross. What was finished? What mission was accomplished? How is the world different after the final breath of Jesus, than it was before? What happened on the cross, that makes the cross such a big deal?
His enemies can help us find the answer, because they inadvertently explain the cross for us. If you would get out your copies of the Story, as we are now on Chapter 26. If you have a Bible, you can turn to Matthew 27:39-42, and Jesus is on the cross and this is what happened ~
39 Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads 40 and saying, “You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself! Come down from the cross, if you are the Son of God!”
41 In the same way, the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders mocked him.
42 They said, “He saved others, but he can’t save himself! He’s the king of Israel! Let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him.
Mark that phrase – He can’t save Himself. They were mocking and making fun of Jesus while He was on the cross. And they inadvertently said something which is very true. At that moment in time, Jesus couldn’t save Himself . . . and us. He could save us by giving Himself, or He could save Himself by abandoning us. But He could not save both Himself and us. Our salvation depends on Him giving Himself.
Why would that be? Why should salvation depend on Jesus’ death? Why didn’t God just forgive us and pardon us? Why didn’t He say, well, it’s okay, I declare everyone innocent. Isn’t it God’s job to forgive? When you forgive someone, it doesn’t need someone else to die, does it? So why should God’s forgiveness require someone’s death?
Well, the answer to that question, leads us to 2 Biblical truths.
The first truth is the fact God is HOLY, and the other is the severity of sin. And I don’t believe you can understand God without understanding God’s holiness and the severity of sin. The fact that God is holy, is foundational to scripture. From the garden in the book of Genesis to the garden in the book of Revelation, God is portrayed as holy. It means God is above, He is higher than. He is not just better than, or an improved version of us. But He is set apart from us, He is unique, His thoughts are not our thoughts, and His ways are not our ways.
And this is shown in the way God views sin. The Bible says God is too pure for His eyes to look upon evil and He cannot tolerate wrong (Habakkuk 1:13). There’s something about our rebellion that stirs a holy disgust in God.
When the children of Israel rebelled against God and wandered in the desert for 40 years, God said, for 40 years I was angry with them. And the word for anger, literally means to nauseate. Our actions can make God sick. And in the book of Revelation, Jesus tells us about the church in Laodecia, in which the people grew lukewarm in their faith and Jesus was so disgusted He said, I want to spit you out of my mouth. And the phrase to spit out, comes from the Greek word to vomit, or more literally “to reject with extreme disgust.” That’s not a pleasant thought is it?
When God’s holiness encounters our rebellion it makes Him sick. Unfortunately, it doesn’t make us sick. We live in a generation unlike any other. We’ve successfully removed sin from the discussion. And when we look at all the problems and we wonder what the cause is, we need to remember sin has been removed as one of the options. Think about it.
The documentaries about poverty, hunger, drugs, conflict and war. Do you ever see anyone on 20/20 or Dateline or any other show talk about the root cause? Do they say, it’s the result of sin? NO! We fault our genes, our inherited moodiness, our education, our parents, our government, or the way we were potty trained, we fault everyone but ourselves. But according to God, the heart of the problem has always been a problem of the heart.
That is to say, we refuse to acknowledge God and obey Him as our Creator. That our planet is populated by godless people and we make godless decisions and we don’t factor God into the equation. That’s sin. To sin is to reject God as King, and then to make a play for His throne. Not only do we say He isn’t our King, but I’m the king. We play king of the hill, and there’s a massive competition for who rules the hill. Remember when we talked about the kingdom a few weeks ago? There can only be one king, and that position is already occupied by Jesus.
According to scripture, if we could just right that problem, then the other nine would be corrected. If we could somehow get rightly related to God. But our problem is our stubborn wills. We haven’t given God His due, we haven’t rendered to God what He deserves, the submission of our entire will to His. So, how does a holy God respond to this?
Does He just pretend that our sin is a regrettable lapse of concentration. Does He say, ‘boys will be boys and girls will be girls.’ Does God condone our stubbornness or turn a blind eye? NO! He couldn’t and still be holy. A holy God must hate sin.
A holy God cannot compromise his holiness by indulging our sinful or rebellious nature. He must hate sin – Yup, I used the “H” word, God hates sin. And He must punish sin. So, where does that leave us? Is God going to annihilate us? If God was going to punish sin, we wouldn’t have made it out of the garden of Eden.
Now, God might do this if He were just holy! But now we venture upon a 3rd biblical truth. Because, we cannot ignore God’s love. He has this undying devotion to His children. There’s something about you which stole His heart. Who knows what it is, He just chooses to love us. Not because we’re loveable, but because He is love.
And so we have these 2 strong, powerful emotions emerging out of the heavens. God’s holiness marching arm in arm with God’s love. Loving His stubborn kids. According to the Bible, He is the compassionate and gracious God ... yet He does not leave the guilty unpunished. (Exodus 34:6-7). Holy and love in one.
In Him Love and faithfulness meet together; righteousness and peace kiss each other (Psalm 85:10).
He is at once, a righteous God and a Savior. He is full of grace and truth. God is the just one, who justifies those who have faith in Jesus. Do you see the holy love of God? Were God merely holy, we would have been destroyed. Were God merely love, the lack of discipline would destroy us. A holy God cannot disregard wanton rebellion and a loving God cannot disregard His children. But a God of holy love will do what no one can imagine.
He will become a human being and He will lead a sinless life and He will die a sinners death in our place. That is the story of the cross. Listen to the words of Matthew and John from the Story –
45 It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon, for the sun stopped shining.
46 About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”).
47 When some of those standing there heard this, they said, “He’s calling Elijah.”
48 Immediately one of them ran and got a sponge. He filled it with wine vinegar, put it on a staff, and offered it to Jesus to drink. 49 The rest said, “Now leave him alone. Let’s see if Elijah comes to save him.”
30 When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
51 At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split 52 and the tombs broke open. The bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life.
53 They came out of the tombs after Jesus’ resurrection and went into the holy city and appeared to many people.
54 When the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified, and exclaimed, “Surely he was the Son of God!” (P. 313-314)
Think about all that’s happening, with the sky darkening, the earth quaking, the rocks splitting, the curtain tearing, the entombed are untombed, the holy of holies is unveiled and the ruthless Roman guards wise up.
Yet it’s the words of Jesus which grab us. Jesus looks heavenward and cries out to the Father, Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani? (My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?)
We read words so heavy, so much emotion. It sounds strange to hear Jesus and forsaken in the same sentence. Jesus forsaken. Scripture even says, “I have not seen the righteous forsaken . . . and God does not forsake His saints” (Psalm 37:25, 28). It says this, but do you understand, in that hour, Jesus was not righteous. He was not a saint. For in this hour, God made Him who knew no sin, to become sin for us, so that we could be viewed by God as righteous (2 Corinthians 5:21).
God placed our sins on His Son, and punished Him. He poured His sin hating wrath on Jesus, so that He could pour out His soul saving love on us. Pastor and theologian John Stott said, “God Himself, gave Himself, to save us from Himself.”
God is the great God who at once, loves His children and punishes their sin. And He did so, by putting that sin on the sinless one. And the cross becomes a refuge for you and I, where heaven’s love and heaven’s justice meet.
Do you see the beauty of the cross? This is the heartbeat of the Bible. Yet, I’m concerned we reduce God into the One who does petty favors for us. He’s the One who gets us promotions, tickets to the game, and parking spaces in a busy lot.
Do you have a small, small God who steps into our lives, who does nothing more than act like a genie whenever we call on Him.
Do you understand the immensity of what God has done for you? What God has done for you offsets any difficulty you have in life. The scales have been massively tipped in your favor. Do you know what this says about your value? About how much God cherishes you? He owns you, He bought you, not with gold or silver, but with the precious blood of His Son, Jesus, the Christ.
And when He was forced to choose between an eternity without you or an eternity with you, He said, I’ll do whatever it takes to have you with me. What else do you need to feel good about yourself? Do you not see that God cares so much for you?
Do you not see that the King of kings. This is the beauty of the cross, and do you see the tragedy of missing the cross. The writer of Hebrews asked this great question . . . How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? (Hebrews 2:3)
In other words, what’s plan B? If Jesus is not our atoning sacrifice, who is? I can’t be yours, and you can’t be mine. I have my sins, and you have yours. The lamb of God must be perfect, pure, sinless. And if my sins are not placed upon Him, then they’re still placed upon me. And that means, I will stand before Him, covered in my own sin, and my sins will result in the punishment I deserve.
How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? The great promise of God is that He has taken our sins and placed them upon His Son, so that His Son can take our place, so that the One who knew no sin, became the sin for us.
He has wrapped Himself around you, in the form of Jesus Christ and He has not pretended that there was no fall, for we have rebelled against God and we have fallen from Him. But because He loves us, He has wrapped Himself around us and He felt the full force of the fall; and the sin hating wrath of God has been satisfied.
Can I say it one more time? Out of His shear, unmerited love for us, God devised this plan of salvation where the guiltless Christ took on the punishment of the guilty. And He died not like a sinner, but He died as a sinner.
Martin Luther said it like this, by a wonderful exchange our sins are not now ours, but Christ’s, and Christ’s righteousness is not Christ’s, but ours.
So, where does that leave us? It leaves us knowing that His sacrifice was sufficient. Your merits do not enhance it, and your mistakes do not diminish it. The sacrifice of Christ is total, unceasing and complete. Christ finished the task of salvation. It only falls to us to accept it. As one writer stated, “the prison has been stormed, the gates of the prison have been opened, but unless we leave our prison cells and go forward into the light of freedom we’re still unredeemed.” Have you stepped out?
