To God be the Glory
April 7, 2023 • Andy Hoot • Mark 15
Audio Transcript: This media has been made available by Mosaic Boston Church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston or donate to this ministry, please visit http://mosaicboston.com Well, good evening. My name is Andy. I'm one of the pastors here at Mosaic along with Pastor Jan and Pastor Shane. And as we say every service, we are glad to have everybody here worshiping with us today. And whether you're new or one of our seasoned attendees, we're thankful to be worshiping with you. If you are not a regular attendee, we invite you out to come on Sunday after this service. We won't hold any announcements at the end of the service today. Come out, we have services at 9:15 and 11:15 AM. Bring friends, bring family, and just come celebrate the resurrection, as tonight we'll be a little more intense. But we're glad that you're here and we're always praying for the Lord to send us people asking questions about Christianity, asking questions about the cross of Jesus Christ. And praying that the Lord would also send seasoned saints to come and just take up the labor, the mission here with us in Boston. Tonight, I'm going to have just a meditation on God's zeal for His glory, how good Friday shows God's zeal for His glory. And before we do so, I just want to jump in and pray. Heavenly Father, we praise You that You are God. You are worthy of our worship. You speak to us through Your creation. When we look upon all that is good in this world, we see Your fingerprint upon it. When we look upon other human lives, we see Your presence. We see some of the character attributes that You have passed on. Lord, when we look upon Your word, most importantly, we see Your love for us. We see this Bible from the third chapter through the finish, talking about man's fall to sin and Your plan to be the solution to that, to crush the serpent on the head, and to come and be both the priest and the sacrifice of the atonement for our sins. And Lord, we praise You for sending Jesus Christ who is our brother, but is also our God. We thank You that He took on flesh to be tempted and tried in every way. He took on flesh to know the challenges firsthand that we face in this life. And Lord, He took on flesh to walk perfectly under your law in the way that we could not. And we thank you Lord that He came, He lived for the primary purpose of going to the cross for Your lost children. And He went and He bore the full wrath that is due for all of our sins and the work is finished. We praise You that as we look upon Good Friday, as we look upon Christ, we know that it is finished. And Lord, it's sad, it sickens us to know what Christ went through us. But we praise You for that. We praise You that we can say ultimately You have worked the great travesty of the cross for Your good, for Your glory, for our salvation. We pray right now. Lord, just show us more of Your heart. Let us not get lost in thinking what this day means and offers to us. Let's not just seek an emotional religious experience, Lord. Let us grow further and further in love with your heart. I pray these things in Jesus's name. Amen. Now to start, I want to read from Matthew ... Excuse me, Mark chapter 15 and I'll read the whole chapter, I think it's 1-47, Mark chapter 15 verses 1-47. "And as soon as it was morning, the chief priest held a consultation with the elders and scribes and the whole council. And they bound Jesus and led him away and delivered him over to Pilate. And Pilate asked him, 'Are you the king of the Jews?' And he answered him, 'You have said so.' And the chief priest accused him of many things. And Pilate again asked him, 'Have you no answer to make? See how many charges they bring against you?' But Jesus made no further answer, so that Pilate was amazed. Now at the feast he used to release for them one prisoner for whom they asked. And among the rebels in prison, who had committed murder in the insurrection, there was a man called Barabbas. And the crowd came up and began to ask Pilate to do as he usually did for them. And he answered them saying, 'Do you want me to release for you the King of the Jews?' For he perceived that it was out of envy that the chief priest had delivered him up. But the chief priest stirred up the crowd to have him release for them Barabbas instead. And Pilate again said to them, 'Then what shall I do with the man you call the King of the Jews?' And they cried out again, 'Crucify him.' And Pilate said to them, 'Why? What evil has he done?' But they shouted all the more, 'Crucify him.' So Pilate wishing to satisfy the crowd, released for them Barabbas. And having scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified. And the soldiers led him away inside the palace (that is, the governor's headquarters), and they called together the whole battalion. And they clothed him a in a purple cloak and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on him. And they began to salute him, 'Hail, King of the Jews!' And they were striking his head with a reed and spitting on him and kneeling down in homage to him. And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the purple cloak and put his own clothes on him. And they led him out to crucify him. And they comp compelled a passerby, Simon of Cyrene, who was coming in from the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to carry the cross. And they brought him to the place called Golgotha (which means Place of a Skull). And they offered him wine mixed with myrrh, but he did not take it. And they crucified him and divided his garments among them, casting lots for them, to decide what each should take. And it was the third hour when they crucified him. And the inscription of the charge against him read, 'The King of the Jews.' And with him they crucified two robbers, one on his right and one on his left. And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads and saying, 'Aha! You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself and come down from the cross!' So also the chief priest with the scribes mocked him to one another, saying, 'He saved others; he cannot save himself. Let the Christ, the King of Israel come down now from the cross that we may see and believe.' Those who were crucified with him also reviled him. And when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, 'Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?' 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?' And some of the bystanders hearing it said, 'Behold, he is calling Elijah.' And someone ran and filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink and said, 'Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to take him down.' And Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed his last. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And when the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, "Truly this man was the Son of God!' There were also women looking on from a distance among whom were Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of James and the younger and of Joses and Salome. When he was in Galilee, they followed him and ministered to him, and there were also many other women who came up with him to Jerusalem." "And when evening had come, since it was the day of preparation, that is, the day before the Sabbath, Joseph of Arimathea, a respected member of the council, who was also himself looking for the kingdom of God, took courage and went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Pilate was surprised to hear that he should have already died. And summoning the centurion, he asked him whether he was already dead. And when he learned from the centurion that he was dead, he granted the corpse to Joseph. And Joseph brought a linen shroud, and taking him down, wrapped him in the linen shroud and laid him in a tomb that had been cut out of the rock. And he rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb. Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses saw where he was laid." This is the reading of God's holy word. It's in this, the blood of Christ, His crucifixion, and on Sunday, his resurrection that we boast as Christians. To start, I'm glad that Caleb in the introduction said Happy Good Friday because it's just a confusing day. This is the most solemn day of the year for the church, yet it really is one of the most joyful days. Today we celebrate the cross of Jesus Christ. And I come from a lot of ... I've been through a few traditions of Christianity before I came to Mosaic. And there's a lot of questions about how to approach Good Friday. And so I want to start by just making a couple critiques of the typical approach of Good Friday. There's one where people come and on Good Friday, there's this extra pressure to come and think about what Christ went through for me. Wow. Look how far, look at the ridicule, look at the mockery, look at the physical pain, look at the sin, the wrath that He bore for me. And I want to say keep doing that. We have to keep doing that for at the cross we boast He who knew us and became sin, so in Him we might become the righteousness of God. And there's a tendency though, to just get one side of the Good Friday story. And it's when you really just think about, wow, what did Jesus go through for me, what you miss out on is, is your heart being taken to worship of God. What does the cross, how does this direct me to worship of God? And so this point's a little confusing. I say, don't make this the only thing that you do. As you contemplate the weight that Christ bore on the cross, you should be in awe and astonishment and wonder about what He did for you. You should grimace as you read the gospel story, the crucifixion story. You should grimace as we take communion and you eat the bread and drink the juice, the wine. You should grimace, almost feel sick as I go through a reading to close out my portion of this message that will tell you and explain more details of the crucifixion than you could have ever wanted to know. But you don't want to make it the primary thing. And there's just beneath this wow what he did for me, some Christians can just get lost. We say that Jesus Christ, He is our Lord and He is our savior. And we get stuck in our faith just saying, "Wow, he's my savior. What has he done for me?" But beneath that is really me, me, me, instead of wow, God, God, God, look at what God has done. And so I challenge you today, think. I said this is a message where we're talking about God's zeal for his glory. As I preach to you right now, ask the Lord to show you what does Good Friday teach me about God Himself? Not what does Good Friday do for me? And so that's a nuanced point. You want to feel the weight. You should feel the weight. You have the law of God standing over you in this dark building right now. I just read Mark, the crucifixion story. You should be feeling it, but don't let that be the only thing. Don't let that be the primary thing. And next, I just want to critique. A lot of people come to a Good Friday service to tremble and really just get that little taste of religious experience, of emotional experience that will just carry them forward in their life. There's a famous hymn that really I think captures this tendency for Good Friday and it's, were you there when they crucified my Lord. I think a lot of people know that. And the lyrics go: Were you there when you crucified my Lord? Were you there when you crucified my Lord? Oh. If you know the song, you know that I do not have the capacity to sing it. Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble. And I used to attend a church that sang this song on every Good Friday and I really looked forward to it. It's catchy. Guys like Johnny Cash sang it. But I think this approach captures, reveals the wrong mindset. It reveals a mindset of I just want to tremble. I just want to be shaken a little bit as I engage God, as I engage His holy scriptures. And this has shown, some Christians who are regular church attendees, we fall into this. But many people come out once a year, let me go get my fix, let me go get right before God by doing this. And it's not the right way. What's the problem? We only want to sometimes tremble. We want to pause and be shaken a bit. And what Good Friday teaches is that it's not about us. It's not about coming to get a religious experience. And you can come and do that every week at Mosaic and hopefully it goes beyond that to your heart. But Good Friday, first and foremost is about God and His zeal for His glory. And if your mind, as you ponder just the weight that Christ bore for you, if you come and you have this religious experience, but you don't get taken up to worship and awe and wonder at the glory of God and his character, then we have failed in this service. You are either after the wrong thing in your approach or we as a church are not taking you to the heavenly of heavenlys, taking you into the presence of God. And Jesus knew this. He knew that the cross was all about God's glory. Right before He was betrayed by Judas and handed to the authorities Christ prayed, "Now is my soul troubled." And this is John chapter 12:27-28. "Now, is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? 'Father, save me from this hour? But for this purpose I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name.' Then a voice from heaven came from heaven: 'I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.'" When we observe Good Friday, we tend to get so caught up in the thinking about the power and ambiance of Christ, of the situation of the service. We get so caught up in thinking about what does this mean for me? What's the point of coming out here? How does this add to my personal walk in the faith? But in doing so, we miss what God is trying to teach us about himself. And what is that God has a zeal. He's teaching us, God, I have a zeal for my glory, first and foremost. What is Christ's passion? This week where we talk about his suffering in holy week, it's a storm, literally the sky went black, probably felt a lot like this for several hours of the day in Jerusalem, while Christ was on the cross. The cross is the storm. The fury of God's just rest, the whole cup of it for all sins, past, present, and future of his children. And our engagement in one of the events in Christ's life with a storm should teach us how to take lessons from this storm on the cross. Mark 4:36-41 says, "And leaving the crowd, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. And other boats were with him. And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling. But he was in the stern, asleep in the cushion. And they woke him and said to him, 'Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?' And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, 'Peace! Be still!' And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. He said to them, 'Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?' And they're filled with great fear and said to one another, 'Who then is this, that even the wind in the sea obey him?'" So what's the situation at the end of this storm scene? Imagine just being in a boat with waves just rocking over your head, the winds just loud howling in your ears, rain's coming down, thunder, lightning, and Jesus is there sleeping and he wakes up and he says, "Peace. Be still." The situation at the end is that the disciples are left more scared as they ponder the nature of Jesus than they were by the storm that was rocking them a moment ago. "Who is this man? Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him," they ask. And that's how our engagement with the storm of Good Friday should be when we think about God. We should ask, "Who is this God?" When we get a greater glimpse at the lens he goes to preserve his just, his righteous, his glorious nature, it should shake us to the core, not just give us a little tremble. It should inspire us to turn to get right with him through Christ immediately and should change us all together from the inside out. And this is in several parts of scripture. Where do I give this primarily tonight? Romans chapter 3:21-26. It says, "But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus for all who believe. For there is no distinction, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus." I think these verses contain the most important paragraph on the atonement in the Bible, and that's not biblical. That's just my after me really digging into it in this season and in the past. What do these verses say? They say that beneath God's pursuit of our justification, our being made right before him and forgiveness, beneath our justification and forgiveness in sending to the cross was the pursuit of God to clear his own name. Verse 25 can be understood as "God put Christ forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins." The text tells us that until Christ sacrifice on the cross, God's righteousness is at stake. His name was in need of vindication. Why is that the case? Why did God face the problem of needing to give a public vindication of his righteousness? The answer it's provided in verse 25, "because in his divine forbearance, he had passed over former sins." Now what does that mean? It means that for millennia, God had been doing what Psalm 103 verse 10 says. "He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities." Think King David. He sends a man off to war to get killed so that he can marry his wife and the prophet Nathan tells him his sins are forgiven and David gets to continue to serve as king. There's no punishment in the kingdom, and he's not stricken dead. And that's offensive. Why is passing over of sin of forgiveness such a problem? Well, what is sin? Romans 3:23 says, "For all sin and fall short of the glory of God," or translated literally, "all of sinned and lacked the glory of God." Sin is related to glory and it's understood as a lacking or losing of it. When Adam sinned, he lost the glory that came with being a sinless image bearer of the trial of God. How did he lose his glory? He exchanged that glory which was inherent in his nature as an image bearer of God for something offered to him in the creation. All sin is a preference for the temporary pleasures of things found within the finite creation over the everlasting joy of eternal fellowship with the creator. Sin is a failing to love God's glory above everything else. Altogether sin might be understood as an effort to rob God of his glory, or that sin is a rebellion against God's glory. Therefore, the problem when God passes over sin is that God seems to condone the behavior of those who commit sin. He seems to be saying it is a matter of indifference that his glory is spurned. He seems to condone the low assessment of who He is, His righteousness, His worth from the sinner. Where the passing over of sin communicates that God's glory and His righteous governance are of little or no value to the sinner. But according to Romans, this is the most basic problem that God solved by the death on his son. Verse 25 and 26 say, "This, God's putting Christ his son forward to die was to show God's righteousness because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time." So God, he could have settled accounts with man by not saving anybody and punishing all sinners with hell. This would've demonstrated that He does not condone our falling short of his glory or the belittling of His honor. But God did not will to condemn everyone like that. John 3:17 says, "God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him." This truth we know well. We know well that God is for us. We know that our salvation is God's goal in sending Jesus. But today I'm asking, do you know the foundation of God's rescue plan for his children? Do you know that there is a deeper goal in the father's sending of the son? Do you know that God's love for us depends on a deeper love, namely God's love for his own glory? Do you know that God's desire to save sinners rest on a deeper desire, namely God's desire to vindicate his righteousness? Do you realize that the accomplishment of our salvation does not center on us, but on God's zeal for his own glory? The big question of the cross is not can we be saved, but can Christ repair the glory of God for the people of God? And the resounding answer of the Bible is yes. Christ drank the full cup of God's wrath for the sins of his children, past, present, future when he went to the cross and first and foremost for God the Father, then for us. So this is why is it important to understand, meditate upon Good Friday. It shows us that the cross is the foremost display of God's love for sinners. Not because it demonstrates the value of sinners, but because it vindicates the value of God for sinners to enjoy. God's love for man does not consist in making man central, but in making Himself central to man. The cross doesn't direct man's attention to His own vindicated worth, but to God's vindicated righteousness. This is love, God pursuing His own glory because the only eternal happiness for man is happiness focused on the riches of God's glory. Psalm 16:11 says, "In your presence there is fullness of joy. At your right hand are pleasures forevermore." God's self-exaltation, it's loving because it preserves for us and offers to us the only fully satisfying object of desire in the universe, Himself, the all glorious, all righteous God. If God doesn't correct things, if God doesn't make sure that there is payment for sins, he is not worthy to be God. At the cross your view of God and His character and love of God and His character, they should expand. He destroys any formulations of a God that we could have contrived by our own personal preferences. He destroys any construction of God that could have been contrived by the primary ideals of our day, our culture, our country, our government. At the cross, you don't just tremble. Sometimes but are shaken to the core. Who is this God that chases after his own glory with such zeal? At the cross, you see that you're not the center of things. Your glory and joy are not at the center of life and history, but God and his glory and joy are. You see that you're just blessed that He even offers a chance to walk beside Him in life despite your sin through faith in Jesus Christ. At the cross you see most clearly on Good Friday that you are a mere creature made for worship of the good, holy, and wise God. At the cross you see that God is both just and the justifier. You cherish the fact that he has procured your salvation through the sending of the Son and the fact of His righteous character. At the cross you'll find that to be loved intimately is to be forgiven, cleansed and enabled to see and to feel the wonder that the Father has for himself and that Christ has for the Father and that the spirit has for them both. To close my speaking portion before we partake ... Oh, excuse me, what the cross is it's the Grand Canyon. God doesn't take us to Mount Washington, a cheap New England wannabe. Now the cross, God takes us to the Grand Canyon. He displays the full majesty of who he is. He shows a zeal for righteousness, holiness, perfection, all glories, preserves them and says, "Look upon me. Look upon how great I am. Look at how holy set apart from all other as I am and be holy before me, because that is what is best for you." And praise God, he doesn't say that to us in our sin without hope, for we know that without Jesus Christ, who was perfect, who was holy, while we are sinners, we can look to Christ and have peace with him. We can look to God and know that He in all of His glory and power and splendor, the might of His good hand is working towards us for all of eternity in Jesus. And so to close my portion before we partake in communion together, I want to read a really long excerpt that does spend a lot of time making me say, "Wow, look what God has done for me." But as you read it, I want you to test yourself. I want you to test yourself. When you look at the death, the crucifixion of Christ, do you look simply to be shaken, to tremble a little? Or as a reader, are you only thinking, "Wow, look at what God has done for me," and not go beyond that? Or are you brought to praise and wonder to see the lens that God goes to preserve his glorious and righteous character for your eternal satisfaction in him? I'm going to read a long section from Fleming Rutledge's book, The Crucifixion: Understanding the Death of Jesus Christ. "It is formidably difficult to understand the cross today in its original context after 2000 years in which it has been domesticated, romanticized, idealized, and misappropriated. Occasionally a modern interpreter struggling to find some correspondence that can be grasped by people today will compare the cross of Roman times to the American electric chair. This is an adequate analogy for a number of reasons as we shall see, but we can learn a few things from it. Imagine revering an electric chair. Imagine using it as the focal point in our churches, hanging small replicas around our necks, carrying it aloft in procession and bow bowing our heads as it passes. The absurdity of this scenario can readily be grasped, but other features in the comparison might help us. For instance, the electric chair when it was still used was almost always used for executing the lowest class of criminal and majority of them black with no powerful connections or other resources. Similarly, the Romans virtually never used the cross for executing people who had occupied high positions and never for Roman citizens. Another point of contact is the contradictory response of revulsion and attraction familiar to anyone who has ever slowed to look at a wreck on a highway. Even the most fastidious person when confronted by a photograph of an electric chair, let alone the real thing, will experience a disturbing fascination. There have always been people who specialize in coming to cheer and applaud executions when they took place, whether lynchings, hangings, or electrocutions. That is what undoubtedly happened on Calvary when Jesus was nailed to the cross and left there to die. Crowds of people then as now took pleasure in reviling the one who is being put to death. When they became bored with this pastime, they went safely home to their comforts and gave the victim no further thought. 'It is nothing to you, all you who passed by,' Lamentations 1:12. But there are very important differences. Electrocutions were at least theoretically supposed to be humane and quick, but crucifixion as a method of execution was specifically designed to intensify and prolong agony. In this sense, the cross was infinitely more dreadful than the electric chair, odious, though the chair was. Another difference is that the person to be electrocuted is permitted the dignity of a mask or a hood, presumably so that the privilege of the face noted by Susan Sontag would be protected. Most important of all, electrocutions took place indoors out of public view with only a few select people permitted to watch. Crucifixion, on the other hand, was supposed to be seen by as many people as possible. The basement resulting from public display was a chief feature of the method along with the prolonging of the agony. It was a form of advertisement or public announcement. 'This person is the scum of the earth, not fit to live, more an insect than a human being.' The crucified wretch was pinned up like a specimen. Crosses were not placed out in the open for convenience or sanitation, but for maximum public exposure. Crucifixion as a means of execution in the Roman Empire had its express purpose, the elimination of victims from consideration as members of the human race. It cannot be said too strongly that it was its function. It was meant to indicate to all who might be toying with subversive ideas that crucified persons were not of the same species as either the executioners or the spectators, and were therefore not only expendable, but also deserving of ritualized extermination. Therefore, the mocking and jeering that accompanied crucifixion were not only allowed, they're part of the spectacle and were programmed into it. In a sense, crucifixion was a form of entertainment. Everyone understood that the specific role of the passerby was to exacerbate the dehumanization and degradation of the person had thus been designated to be a spectacle. Crucifixion was cleverly designed, we might say diabolically designed, to be an almost theatrical enactment of the sadistic and inhumane impulses that lie within human beings. According to the Christian gospel, the Son of God voluntarily and purposefully absorbed all of that, drawing it into himself. Anyone seeking to interpret Jesus crucifixion must decide whether or not to include a clinical description. Since the New Testament writers are conspicuously silent about the physical details, it is legitimate to ask whether it is suitable or helpful to introduce them. On the other hand, people in New Testament times had all seen crucifixions and did not need a description. The evangelists and the other New Testament writers were able to assume a familiarity with the method that is unthinkable for us today. Most of us have never even come close to see anyone tortured to death. 'For this reason,' as Martin Hengel writes, 'reflection on the harsh reality of crucifixion and antiquity may help us to overcome the acute loss of reality, which is to be found so often present in theology and preaching.' The early theologian originally called Jesus death the utterly vile death on the cross. Cicero, the great Roman statesman and writer referred to the crucifixion as the supreme penalty, exceeding burning and decapitation and gruesomeness. Some rudimentary knowledge of what was taking place will help us to understand these terms. The first phase of a Roman execution was scourging. The lictors, Roman legionnaires assigned to this duty used a whip made of leather cords to which small pieces of metal or bone had been fastened. Paintings of the scouring of Jesus had always shown him with a loin cloth but in fact the victim would've been naked, tied to a post in a position to expose the back and buttocks to maximum effect. With the first strokes of the scourge, skin would be pulled away and subcutaneous tissue exposed. As the process continued, the lacerations would begin to tear into the underlying skeletal muscles. This would result not only in a great pain but also in appreciable blood loss. The idea was to weaken the victim to a state just short of collapse or death. It was common for taunting and ridicule to accompany the procedure. In the case of Jesus, the New Testament tells us that a crown of thorns, a purple robe and a mock scepter were added to intensify the mockery. The condition of a prisoner after scourging just prior to crucifixion would depend upon several things. Previous physical condition, the enthusiasm of the lictors and the extent of blood loss. In the case of Jesus, these things cannot be known. But the fact that he was apparently unable to carry the crossbar himself would indicate that he was probably in a severely weakened state and he may have been close to circulatory shock. Those being crucified were then paraded through the streets, exposing them to the full scorn of the population. When the procession reached the site of the crucifixion, the victims would see before them the heavy upright wooden post permanently in place to which the crossbar, sorry, they have the Latin terms, to which the crossbar would be joint. The person was to be crucified. The person to be crucified would be thrown down on his back, exacerbating the pain of the wounds from the scourging and introducing dirt into them. His hands would be tied or now to the crossbar. Nailing seams to have been preferred by the Romans. Ossuary finds have given us a clearer idea of how this was done. 2000 years of Christian iconography notwithstanding that nails were not driven into the palms which could not support the weight of a man's body, but into the wrists. The long stake of the cross was then hoisted onto the crossbar with the victim dependent from it, and the feet were tied or nailed. At this point, the process of crucifixion proper began. Victims of crucifixion lived on their crosses for periods varying from three or four hours or to three or four days. It has often been remarked that Jesus ordeal is relatively brief. Perhaps he was weakened by the scourging or had lost more blood than usual or suffered cardiac rupture. We cannot know. In any sense, it has been surmised that the major pathophysiological effect of crucifixion beyond the excruciating pain was a marked interference with normal respiration, particularly exhalation, passive exhalation, which we all do thousand of times a day without thinking about it, becomes impossible for a person hanging on a cross. The weight of a body hanging by its wrists would depress the muscles required for breathing out. Therefore, each exiled breath could only be achieved by a tremendous effort. The only way to gain a breath at all would be by pushing oneself up from the legs and feet or pulling ones off up by the arms, either of which would cause intense agony. Add to this primary factor, the following secondary ones, bodily functions uncontrolled, insects feasting on wounds and orifices, unspeakable thirst, muscle cramps, bolts of pain from the severed median nerves in the wrist, scourged back scraping against the wooden post. It is more than any of us are capable of fully imagining. The verbal abuse and other actions such as spitting and throwing refuse by the spectators. Roman soldiers and passersby added the final touch. The New Testament shows us life lived between two worlds, the Roman and the near Middle Eastern crucifixion was noxious enough in Roman eyes. Palestinian attitudes would've found it perhaps even more so. Middle Eastern cultures still have to this day an acute sense of personal honor lodged in the body. An amputation administered as punishment, for instance, would be seen as much more than just physical cruelty or permanent handicap. It would mean that the amputee would carry the visible marks of dishonor and shame for the rest of his or her life. Anything done to the body would've been understood as exceptionally cruel, not just because it inflicted pain, but even more because it caused dishonor. Furthermore, the passion accounts reflect in part a very ancient ritual of humiliation. The mocking of Jesus, the spitting and scorn, the inversion of his kingship and the studious dethronement with the crown of thorns and purple robe would've been understood as a central part of a total right of infamy, of which the crucifixion itself is the culmination. Another aspect of crucifixion not widely noted is that a crucified person gasping and heaving on his cross is forced to be his own executioner. He is not even allowed the perverse dignity of having a human being corresponding to himself who hangs or decapitates him. He dies truly and completely alone with the weight of his own body, killing him as it hangs, causing his own diaphragm to suffocate him." All of this Jesus Christ went through for you, but also for the Father's glory. Let us pray before we partake in communion. Heavenly Father, we are just sickened and nauseous, just pondering just what Christ went through on the cross, the pain, the isolation, the thirst, the sadness. Lord, we cannot fathom. Lord, we do thank you that He came and He bore that for us. And because He bore that, He can identify with us from this moment on in history and our weaknesses and in our pains and conflicts. But most of all, Lord, we thank you that on the cross when He cried out, you did not hear Him, you did not respond. You did forsake him. Lord, he took the full cup of the punishment due for our sin so that we do not have to. We thank you that we do not have to relate with Him in that. We praise you for freeing us from the fear of death, from the fear of eternal torment, which would rightly be due to us had Jesus not gone to the cross for us. Lord, we pray, we thank you. But more as I reflect on tonight, we thank you for your zeal, for your glory. We thank you that to preserve your holy and right name, Lord, you go to such lengths. We thank you that you use your power for all that is good and godly and pure. We thank you for the hope that we have, knowing that as we go forward facing this creation, that is still impacted by Satan, sin, and death. We know that you're working for our good and not against us. Lord, help us to grow in our love and appreciation of you and who you are. You are all together set apart. You are all together holy. And with our limited minds we can only understand that to the degree that you allow us. So I pray, Lord, as we look at the cross, let us grow in our love and knowledge and understanding of you in addition to our appreciation for what you have done for us in Jesus and offering us salvation. Let us find joy walking in communion with you. I pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.
Your End is Near
April 17, 2022 • Jan Vezikov • Romans 3:21–31
Audio Transcript: This media has been made available by Mosaic Boston Church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston and our neighborhood churches, or donate to this ministry, please visit http://mosaicboston.com. Good morning. I don't know if you've heard, but Christ is risen. Christ is risen. Christ is risen. Praise God. I'm Jan, one of the pastors, and we're going to preach the word today, because there's power in the word of God. Would you pray with me over the preaching of God's holy word? Heavenly Father, we thank you that you are a great God and a holy God, blazing holiness. Not one of us can stand in your presence apart from the shielding of the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Jesus, we thank you that you lived a perfect life. Impeccable, no sin, perfect life of love toward God and love toward neighbor itself. And you loved us to the end, of going to a cross, bearing, excruciating physical anguish, and that was just the surface level of the pain as you bore the wrath of God on our behalf. We thank you, Jesus, that you didn't stay dead. Praise God. We thank you that you came back from the dead, and in the death of Christ, you dealt death a death blow. We praise you for that, and we thank you that you are the Great Conqueror, the Great Victor over Satan, sin, and death. And that when we trust in you by grace through faith, we are in you, shielded, protected. Your shield of favor covers us. We thank you for that. And I pray, Holy Spirit, you are with us, you are heavy in the room. I pray today for those who feel dead inside, for those who have experienced death of relationships or death of marriage. I pray today bring your resurrection power from the inside out, speak life to dry bones so that they come alive. In the name of Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen. My dear wife, Tanya, told me that in a suit I look like a funeral home director, which is appropriate because the title of sermon is Your End is Near, and we're all going to die. How much money do you have? You know the bottom line. You think about it all the time. Order magnitude. How much time do you have left? We have no idea. I don't have to be a mystic or a profit to know that every single one of us, our end is near, and on Good Friday we establish the fact that we're all sinners and we're guilty before a righteous and holy God. Ivan Turgenev said the following. He's a Russian poet writer. He says, "I do not know what the heart of a bad man is like, but I do know what the heart of a good man is like, and it's terrible." It's just terrible. The physical life is not all there is. We know that there's something that transcends the material life, that's God. So, the question before us is, how can a just, holy, righteous God accept unrighteous, sinful, unjust people? How can we be saved from the looming just punishment that's coming? Is there a way to get mercy? Mercy is when you say, "God, have mercy on me. Please forgive me of my sins." Not guilty. There's no punishment. All of your sins are forgiven. You're free to go home. You're free to live your life. Is that just why Jesus Christ died? To forgive us our sins and give us mercy? No, it's not just why he died. If you pause there, you only have half the gospel, and half the gospel is no gospel. Jesus Christ didn't just die to give you mercy. Jesus also died to give you grace. Well, what's the difference between mercy and grace? Mercy is when you are not given the punishment you deserve. Grace is when you are given something on top. Grace is when you get what you don't deserve. You're declared just. You're justified by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. Just as if I'd not sinned. Justification by grace through faith. That's what we're talking about. We're talking about grace, and every single one of us needs grace. God's unmerited favor. Roman's 3:21-31. Would you look at the text with me, either in your Bible or in your app or on the screen? By the way, we're in the Sermon Series through Romans. And if this is your first time, it's been one of the most powerful sermon series ever at this church. You can get it in the app. You can get all the sermons online, on the website. Today, we're in Romans 3:21-31. "But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it - the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and false short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus." "Then what becomes of our boasting? It's excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith. For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, since God has one - who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law." This is the reading of God's holy and infallible authoritative word. May you write these eternal truths upon our lives. St. Paul begins this stream of thought in verse 20. "For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin." We talked about this last week that God gave the 10 commandments. It's a moral law. It's written on every single one of our hearts. We know that it's true. And every single one of us, we've broken the commandments. Therefore, we are guilty. We can't be justified through obedience because no one's been obedient except for Jesus Christ. So, the question before us is, how are sinners justified? Martin Luther, the great reformer in the 16th century, he coined this phrase. By the way, he said that this text, this is the greatest text explaining the gospel, because if you don't understand this text, you most likely do not understand the gospel. He coined the phrase called "Simul justus et peccator," in Latin. 'Simul,' we get the word 'simultaneously' from it. 'Justus,' 'just,' 'simultaneously just.' 'Et,' E-T, 'and.' 'Peccator' means sinner. We get the word 'impeccable.' That's someone without sin. That's why I don't like the word 'impeccable,' because only Jesus is impeccable. Not your car. And we're sinners. But, we can be simultaneously just. How? That's the question before us. Thanks to Jesus Christ, life, death, and resurrection, we can be judiciously declared just by God while still sinners. This is the very heart of the gospel. That you are a wicked sinner, that's the bad news. You're so much worse than you ever even thought. Just ask your mom. You're terrible. We are all sinners, just terrible, but we don't have to clean ourselves up before we come to God. You don't have to clean up your sin before you come to God. You don't have to be righteous in order to be accepted by God. You need to come to God the way you are. Just the way you are. Come just as you are to Jesus Christ and say, "Jesus, you promised I can be justified even as a sinner. You promised. I name and claim your word. I believe your word. I can be just, I can be declared just because of Jesus Christ." Romans 3:21. "But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it." Righteousness of God, apart from the law? Paul, what are you talking about? You just made the case that the law, the law, the law, it's still enforced. We need to obey the law. And then, you're telling us that we can't do it. We can't make ourselves righteous. We need a righteousness apart from the law. Whose righteousness is that? It's the righteousness of God. It's the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the only person who lived a life good enough to get into heaven. No one else comes even close. Not even Mother Teresa. Nobody comes close. No one can get into heaven on their own merit, on their own work. This isn't a Christian idea, as the verse tells us. It wasn't something made up by Jesus Christ. It wasn't something made up by the Apostle Paul or any of the other apostles. He said that it was in the Law and the Prophets, the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it. He's talking about the Hebrew scriptures. He's talking about the Jewish sacred scriptures, that the doctrine of justification by grace through faith from the reformation. He's saying it was in the Hebrew Bible the whole time. It was in the Torah the whole time. He's like, "Yeah." When God comes to Abraham, a pagan, and says, "You're mine. I choose to pour my life and my love out on you. You are mine." And Abraham believed. That's all it took. And this is Genesis 15:6. "And he believed the Lord, and he, the Lord, counted it to him as righteousness." Was Abraham righteous the rest of his life? No, he made mistake after mistake, but this is the beauty of why you can bounce back when you sinned. You can repent and immediately receive grace from God and you can keep going. The righteous person falls down seven times and keeps getting up because of this. By the way, you can't have any relationship unless you understand grace. You can't understand any relationship, in particular, marriage. I've been thinking of marriage a lot recently, because it's springtime in Boston, the best time of the year, and there's a lot of weddings happening at Mosaic. Praise God, praise God. And by the way, if you're single, today's a tremendous time to meet a godly person. To all the single people, there's going to be a mixer in the foyer or on the steps afterwards. Just be bold. The righteous are as courageous as lions. Ask someone out for a coffee at Tatte. Go to brunch. I've been rethinking how I am doing marital counseling and how I'm going to weddings upcoming. I don't want to say, "Are you going to love each other?" I don't want to say that because to love each other means that you are going to bear with this person's sin until death do you part. That's what we should be saying. "Do you, groom, take the bride with all of her baggage and carry-ons and you're going to carry them the rest of your life?" "Are you going to take his sin too?" And when you sin against each other, you give each other grace and you repent, but you start by repenting to the Lord. The law was given as a standard by which we will be held accountable. It was given to drive us to God and say, "God, have mercy on me, a sinner." And this is why the blood sacrifices are so important in the Old Testament, because it was a reminder to every single person every single time it was done that we cannot be made righteous by our works because our works have never enough. So, how do I get the righteousness of God? How can I be declared righteous? That's verse 22. "The righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe." All you need is faith in Christ. But, here I've got to pause, because we have to define what faith is. Let's talk about faith in Jesus Christ for a bit. Saving faith. Who is Jesus Christ? He's the second person of the Trinity, he's fully God, he's fully man. And Jesus Christ is the word, the word of God incarnate. John 1:1-5. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it." Jesus Christ is the word. He is the light, and he shines this light into darkness, but we hate the light because the light exposes our sin. It's impossible to sin with the lights on, the light of God. The light, when you're in darkness and you're sinning, the lights come on and it's unpleasant. It's blinding. It's disorienting. You're shocked. People in Boston live in darkness, people in the whole world live in darkness. We're like hormone-disoriented middle schoolers. I'm thinking seventh and eighth grade at a school dance in the gym. Lights are off. You're having a good time. Just learned to dance. There're girls. And then, the gym teacher turns the lights on at 8:00 PM, tells everyone to go home. Oh no, you're crestfallen. The light comes into darkness. Unbelief is the darkness. It's the core division in our country, in our society, in our workplaces, in our homes. Faith was and is the core of Western civilization. It shaped the modern world, and you can see that faith in unbelief division. You can see it playing out in every single major debate and argument that we see in the world. Popular society has done everything it possibly can to banish Jesus, just getting rid of Jesus Christ from everything. Every single public space, you're trying to squeeze Jesus out completely. And how's that going for us? How's the reconstruction of a better morality working for us? It's not. We're living in darkness, and in darkness, you don't know what's true. We search for truth. Can we find truth without Jesus Christ? No, of course not. We deny the truth, and it's led to a whole manner of wickedness and perversion in our world. Moral corruption, and blindness, and lawlessness. Calling evil good and good evil. This is the darkness, and in the darkness, you can't tell which way is up or out. Disbelief is the darkness, and it leads to destruction and confusion, because all we have gone astray like sheep. We search for truth, is that search genuine? Because, when we find the truth, it's inconvenient, because now we have to orient our lives around the truth if we're going to be honest. Pontius Pilate searched for truth, genuinely or rhetorically, when he asked what is truth before letting the mob decide the answer to that question. John 18:37-40. "Then Pilate said to him, 'So you are king?' Jesus answered, 'You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world - to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.' Pilate said to him, 'What is truth?' After he said this, he went back outside to the Jews and told them, 'I find no guilt in him. But you have a custom that I should release one man for you at the Passover. So do you want me to release to you the King of the Jews?' They cried out again, 'Not this man, but Barabbas!' Now Barabbas was a robber." Pilate says, "What is truth?" And then, he says, "I see nothing wrong with this man. That's my truth," and then the mob comes at him and he cowers like a coward to the mob. He doesn't even stand... You want to know the truth? You don't even stand for your own truth. Because when the mob comes after you, it takes courage to stand in the truth. By the way, this is why some of you, perhaps, are not as open about your faith as you should be. You're afraid of what people might think. You're afraid of the loss. You're afraid of not being liked. Jesus Christ said, "I'm the way and the truth and the life." His life and words speak the truth he's meaning itself. Picture Jesus has a bridge between the physical world and the immaterial meaning of the world. We live in the material world, but it's not all there is. We know that. We know that there are things that transcend the material. We all know that, but Jesus Christ is the only one that can speak meaning into this world, makes sense of things. Yesterday was my sister's birthday, and her second favorite place in the world... Her first favorite place in the world is Mosaic, because this is a house of prayer for all nations. Her second favorite in the world is Gillette stadium. So, yesterday we went to Gillette stadium. I took three of my daughters and we drove to Gillette stadium and we had some Five Guys. It was delicious, grabbed some ice cream. And then, we went to the Hall of Fame, the Patriots Hall of Fame. I saw this painting of Bill Belichick, and it moved me. That's the only way I can explain it. It moved me. It stirred my heart. I'm standing... Bill... It's just ugly. It's so ugly, like he's just pissed at you. He's like cussing you out without even saying anything with just his face. He's got the hoodie and he's just... And I'm staring at it and it's just moving me. I'm like... It's just a canvas with some paint. That's all it is. It looks nice, but why does art move us? Why does beauty move us? Because, it transcends the material. Truth transcends the material. Goodness transcends the material. And you take Jesus out, you banish him from society, well, that's why we can't make sense of any- that's why we have no idea what's true anymore. I stopped watching the news. I got no news. I'm off of social media. I go on Instagram because my sisters post my nieces and nephews. That's nice. I don't want to know anymore news. It's all terrible all the time, so I look to the word of God, which is truth. Michael Gazzaniga in The Consciousness Instinct, he's one of the leading experts in the human mind, and he says the metaphor is built into human consciousness. Human consciousness has an instinct for creating symbols to represent experiences to ourselves. In school, we were taught that simile is a comparison using 'like' or 'as.' Metaphor, which is so important to the human consciousness, doesn't use 'like' or 'as.' It uses 'is.' Jesus is the truth. He is the symbol of truth in a fallen world. But more than just a symbol, he is truth. Everything Jesus did was wholly true. He really historically lived. He really historically died, and he really historically physically came back from the dead. That's true. Now, because that's true, we can draw meaning from it. And the meaning is this, this is how wicked we are. The one time God decided to come into the universe to break through, break in, the immaterial becomes material, divine becomes human, the only time he did that, we killed him. And it wasn't just because back then they were more sinful than we are now. Yes, they were sinful. The Roman leaders killed him because they were Roman leaders and there was too much to lose if they were to allow him to speak the truth. The religious leaders killed him because they were religious leaders, because they were going to lose too much if he were true. The people killed him because he proclaimed the truth about their sin. If Jesus Christ came back today to the world, we would do the same exact thing. We would kill him. Sinful people would figure out a way to kill him, and probably make it look like a suicide. Why? Because, he exposes sin. He exposes the truth. He knows every single one of our dark secrets. He can speak it out loud. That's a dangerous, dangerous person. That's why they killed him. It still is the same way. It would happen all the same this very day. Do you believe in Jesus Christ? That's what we're talking about. Saving faith, and I don't mean, do you believe that Jesus Christ really lived as a human being? I don't mean, do you believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God? And I don't mean, do you believe that everything Jesus taught is true? What I do mean is, have you submitted every single aspect of your life to Jesus Christ, who is king? Is Jesus Christ on the throne of your heart and your life, not just on the throne in heaven? I'm not saying you do it perfectly, but I am saying that you strive to do it perfectly. A true Christian strives to be perfect as your Heavenly father is perfect, as Jesus has told us in the Sermon on the Mount. A lot of modern American Christians have been inoculated from true saving faith with a vaccine of cheap grace. "Oh, you're a sinner? Come, here's your first shot of forgiveness. Now go, live anyway you want, and come back for boosters." No. True faith in Christ is knowing him and doing the hard work of reorienting every single aspect of your life around the truth of Jesus Christ and his word. Some of you have been baptized, maybe members of churches, but one day you'll stand before Christ and hear Matthew 7:21. "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,'" words of Christ, "will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?' And then I would declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.'" Saving faith is when you realize that you have not kept the law, the 10 commandments, you've broken them, and then you turn to Christ and say, "Christ, I need to be forgiven and also I need your righteousness," and by grace through faith, he gives it to you. And then, you do everything you possibly can to do the will of God and follow the way of God as you read in the word of God. So, back to Gillette stadium. My daughter, Milana, she's four. She didn't take a nap yesterday because she was so excited to go to Gillette stadium. And as soon as I got there, I saw my sister. I was like, "We're going to have a meltdown at 5:00 PM." And it was 5:47, she's got a meltdown. We're walking back to the vehicle. She got a meltdown because her sister, Ekaterina, who's seven, went to spend the night at her cousin's house, and Milana started weeping. And I told her, "Baby, you just broken the commandment. Number 10. Thou shalt not covet your sister's sleepover. You wicked little sinner. You are to repent." Instead of repenting, she took a nap. Didn't get to the repentance. We've broken the law, Jesus has fulfilled the law, paid the penalty for our breaking the law. We believe in him, his righteousness gets counted to us, judicially, legally, and then we are to set out to live a life of obedience. That's true saving faith. That's Romans 1:5, that he wrote everything he wrote, Paul wrote everything he wrote for the obedience of faith. Matthew 7:24-27. "Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it." Andrew Klavan in The Truth and Beauty writes the following. "If you do not believe that life is more than life, it would be sadness to do anything but seize the day and live from pleasure to treasure. Better to kowtow tell to the money man and make your pile. Better to kill an inconvenient unborn child and live unfettered. Better to silence your opponents and seize their fortune than to live in mutual freedom. Better to ditch your promises to your spouse and have a sweet new affair. Better to trade your integrity for success and its trappings. Better to keep your head down and your mouth shut in times of danger. To choose instead the tragedy of love is to proclaim with your whole life that this kingdom of heaven within you is a kingdom that never ends. When your cross looms in front of you, it won't be enough to act as if there were a God. You will have to believe, or you will crater." That's saving faith. Saving faith is when we place our trust in Jesus Christ, his righteousness, and not our own, because we don't have enough, we'll never have enough to meet the holy demands of God. And when you trust in Jesus Christ, God judicially transfers the righteousness of Jesus to you. Our sins transferred to Christ, his righteousness is transferred to us. He takes off our sinful rags and he clothe us in his robe of righteousness. A few years ago, I went to buy a shirt at http://t.j.maxx, a preaching shirt. It was white. I never do the fitting room, it's a waste the time. And I walk by faith, not by sight. So, I bought the shirt and I go home. I put it on and my wife's like, "What's that written on the back?" And I didn't even see. And it was like embroidered, gangster calligraphy. I don't know. And it said "King of Kings." I had to go preach and I was like, "Well, I don't have a shirt so let's do some theology." It's kind of arrogant to wear a shirt like this. I can pretend it doesn't say anything on the back, but people are observant. And then, I realized that this is what happens in the double exchange. He who knew no sin, Jesus, becomes our sin, our dirty rags are transferred to him. And then, his righteousness, we become his righteousness, so he clothe us in his robe of righteousness. Let's change the way you live. If you know that you are saved, that you are a Christian, that you are robed in the righteousness of Jesus, it changes the way you live. You walk around with a righteousness that is not your own and you want to do everything you possibly can to not dishonor it with sin. Romans 3:22-24. "For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus." We have all sinned. We've all missed, this is what sin means. It means you missed the mark. Hamartia. You missed the mark. The problem... What's the mark? The mark is the glory of God. God created us in his image so that we image forth his glory. We are created to live for God's glory, God's honor, God's reputation, not our own. And you know that you are a child of God, a follower of Jesus Christ, when God's glory is more important to you than your own, or God's reputation, God's honor is more important to you than your own. Here I've got to pause and ask the following. Dear Christian, are you paralyzed by the idol of being liked? That's why you're so nice to people and you're only nice to people. It's good to be nice to people, but once in a while, you have to speak truth in love because you love them, but you have to speak truth and that truth might come as a rude awakening like this. "Dear friend, I love you so much. I want the best for you. I want you to meet God. And what's in the way? Your sin, your selfishness, your self absorption, your virtue signaling, your sin. You've broken the law. Oh, you don't believe me? Let's look through the 10 commandments. Oh, you don't even know them? Then, you definitely broken them. But Jesus Christ, God incarnate, came, lived, paid the price for your sin, died, rose from the dead. And all you have to do is place your faith and trust in him and then commit the rest of your life to him. And that is the only hope for you to be saved from the wrath of God for all of eternity, from hell, for all of eternity. So, receive the gift." That's not impolite. That's not rude, because you want the best thing for the person. Grace is a gift. What's the best gift you've ever received? If you're married, you better say it's your spouse. You have to, you have to, you have to. My wife and I have been married, coming up on sweet 16, praise God. We love going Ukraine, but we can't go there. Might go to Colorado. Grace is a gift. It's the greatest gift God gives, because if you receive grace, you get God. This one is infinity times better than any other gift. Verse 24. "And are justified by the grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins." Propitiation, do you know that word? Well, we learn stuff at church here at Mosaic because we love the word of God so we learned stuff. And if you can figure out how to order coffee at Starbucks, you can learn theology. Propitiation means to satisfy the demands of justice. In the biblical terms, is to satisfy the demands of God's wrath, the penalty for law breaking is God's wrath. When holy scripture talks about being saved, we're not saved from just Satan. We're saved by God from God. We're saved by God, Jesus Christ, from the Father's wrath on us. We're saved by God from God for God. And Christ is the substitute who took upon himself the wrath that we deserve by his blood to be received by faith. And God will only pass over your sins of Jesus has paved for them. Jesus Christ didn't die in the cross for everyone's sins. Did you know that? Not everyone's sins. Not everyone sins. Jesus Christ died for the sins of the elect, whom he had chose. I don't know who the elect are, so whenever anyone listens to my sermons, I just assume everyone's elect. You should just assume you're elect and repent your sins and follow Jesus. But if you reject Jesus Christ, know your sins are not paid for. You will pay for your own sins for all eternity. So, repent, receive the gift of justification by grace through faith. Romans 3:26. "It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus." The gospel isn't just pardon of sin because God can't just forgive sin. If God could just forgive sin, Jesus Christ wouldn't have to die in the cross. God is just and he does not forget his holiness when he forgives us. He's not just some congenial old guy in the clouds, lonely and wants us to spend eternity with him. No. God is holy and he never negotiates his holiness. He demands and requires that sin be punished. So, how can a just God forgive us? Well, the justice of God and his love and mercy, they mean for God's wrath is poured out on his son. His son is on that cross because he loves us and gave himself for us, and he absorbs the wrath of God. So, God remains just and the justifier. Repent, receive the gift of justification by grace through faith, and then what? Well then, humbly follow Jesus Christ daily. Romans 3:27. "Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith." There is not one thing that you have added to your salvation if you're saved other than your sin. That's the only thing. You did nothing to be justified by God. You did nothing. That why it's called grace. It's a gift. You did nothing. You can't do a thing. What do we have to be proud of? Nothing. That's why Christians and followers of God should be the most humble of people. "I am nothing. I am wicked sinner. I'm saved by grace through faith." But, we're also the most confident. We should be. Because, your identity is secure in Jesus Christ. You are a child of God by grace through faith, and the righteous shall be as bold as lions. So, stay humble. Do God's will. Verse 28. "For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, since God is one - who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law." He talked about the Jewish people in the text on last Sunday, and now here he says, look, God is one. There's not a God of the Jews and a God of the Muslims and a God of the Buddhist and the God of the Christians and the Catholics and the Orthodox. There's only one God. And if you do not have the Son, you do not have the Father. And if you do not have the Son or the Father, you do not have the spirit of God, because God is one. That's what he say. What does he do with the law? Do we get rid of the law? Do we overthrow it? No, by no means. On the contrary, we uphold the law. Faith doesn't overthrow the law. We don't get rid of the 10 commandments. Faith actually reestablishes the law. Do you know the 10 commandments are still enforced on every single one of us? That's why Jesus Christ, when he summarized what the law is and he pointed the 10 commandments and he said, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength and mind. Love your neighbor as yourself." That's how you summarized the 10 commandments, but the 10 commandments are still enforced. Read the oracles of God, that's what the Bible calls the Bible. Study, understand, believe, and obey. Matthew 5:17-20. "Do not think that I've come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not in iota, not a dot, will pass away from the Law until all is accomplished. Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." Do you want to be great in the kingdom of heaven? Follow the Lord. And again, community with other followers of Jesus Christ. We need each other. We need each other to fight the good fight of faith, together to fight sin. And I'm not just talking about Christian friends. A lot of people come to Mosaic saying, "I have no friends. Give me friends." And I'm like, "That's why no one wants to be friends with you. You're desperate. I can smell it." We need brothers and sisters. We need spiritual family that will help us grow as followers of Christ. So, join the church as a coveted member, commit, and allow yourself to be held accountable, officially accountable, and share the gospel. The tremendous news that we can be justified by grace through faith in Christ, and share the gospel with your family, friends, neighbors. If you are not concerned about their eternal souls and their faith, are you even saved? And we have a responsibility to proclaim the truth in a world that hates it and insists that we all have our own truth. Jesus Christ didn't just come to save you from the wrath of God. He also came to give you life, true life, and the fullness of life. Imagine living life without guilt, without shame. Imagine living life with a clean conscience. I slept the soundest I've ever slept in my whole life last night, which is a miracle because before Easter I always get nervous and I'm like, "I'm out of emotions, no more." And then, I woke up today, it was like the most tremendous sleep in my life. And then, a verse came to mind and it says, "God gives sleep to whom he loves." I was like, "Thank you, Lord. You love me. Praise God. Can we do it again tomorrow?" Imagine living a life where the spirit of God courses through you. Imagine living a life of eternal meaning, purpose, significance. Is this life easy? No, it's not. I'm actually 25. This life is not easy. This is the hardest thing you will ever do, but you get God, and God is with you. And the spirit of God is with you. And that's all that matters. Jesus lived, Jesus died, Jesus came back from the dead to show us the way, to tell us the truth, and to give us life. And also, don't forget, love. Everything he did, he did because he was motivated by love for God and love for people. The last supper, right before he gets on his knees and washes the dirty feet of his disciples, it said having loved his own who were in the world. He loved them to the end. That's true love. The love of this world does not love to the end because the love of this world is in love. It chews you up and spits you out when it's done with you. The love of this world is transactional. You're used for what you're good for. And when the time comes, you're done, you're canceled. There's no grace. There's no forgiveness. There's just perpetual confession and reparation. That's our culture. There's no grace, because there's no Christ. His story was a life that was beset on all sides by pain and suffering. He's a man of sorrows, emotional, mental, spiritual suffering. He was tired, hungry, misunderstood, mistreated, even by his friends and family. Betrayed, denied by those closest to him. But, he was obedient to the will of the Father. And because he was obedient to the will of the Father, that's why he died. It wasn't just the physical pain that killed Jesus Christ. Jesus died because the Father withdrew his love. "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Instead of love, all he got in the cross was wrath and hatred. Our Lord, though he died on the cross, did not die of the cross. He died of a broken heart, suffering for you. I'll never forget a sermon by Pastor Andy Davis who texted me right after I said this in my first sermon. He texted me. He's like, "Huh? Spirit of God, baby." Pastor Andy Davis, one of my mentor. I remember a sermon on Colossians where it says, the text is, "In Christ, all things hold together," and he said, "On the cross, Jesus Christ was keeping the nails together." The nails that were nailed through his hands and his feet, he was keeping them together. And he was keeping the cross together. He was keeping Golgotha together, he was keeping it all together, because he's God and God is love. So, Christ is love. Love is what keeps everything together, and love is the heart of the gospel. It's the greatest story ever told. It's the most tremendous news. That's what the gospel is. When you placed your trust in this man, Jesus Christ, who is God, God who chose to come down into the filth, into the dirt, into just the heartbreak of life, the human existence, and he died a criminal's death on a cross, the very moment you trust in him, your sins are all forgiven. You're loved. You're welcomed into the family of God. You're no longer spiritual orphan. You're adopted, and you are free and you will be transformed to bring that story of love into the lives of every person you'll ever encounter in this world, through your life, through your words, through your deeds, sharing Jesus' life and story. This is meaning, this is fulfillment. This is Jesus. That's truth. That's beauty. That's life. So yes, your end is near, but thanks be to God, your eternity is secure. When you die, you are just in heaven for all of eternity by the grace of God, because he will love you to the end and you can't even squirm out of his grasp. He's already proven his love for you, by living, by dying, and by rising from the dead. He is risen. He is risen. He is risen. Now live like it. And love like it. Let's pray. Lord Jesus, we thank you that you are the Great Conqueror. Our Lord, our Savior, our King, our Substitute, our Propitiation, our Shepherd, the word of God, the light of God. You are the truth. Lord, we repent that often we've rejected the truth. It's too inconvenient. We've rejected the light because we like our sins. We repent of all this Lord and we pray. Cleanse our mind and our heart. Purify our souls. Fill us with the Holy Spirit, and make us a people fervent for you, living for your glory, sharing your gospel, building your kingdom. And we pray all this in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Easter Sunday
April 4, 2021 • Luke 24:36–53
Audio Transcript: This media has been made available by Mosaic Boston church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston in our neighborhood churches, or donate to this ministry, please visit http://mosaicboston.com. Good morning, Happy Easter. Happy Easter. More accurately, Christ is risen. He's risen indeed. Praise God. Christ is risen. He's risen indeed. Christ is risen. He's risen indeed. Best news ever, hallelujah. Praise God. Let's pray. Lord Jesus, we thank you that with all the forces that the evil one tried to marshal against you, it wasn't enough. They couldn't keep you down. We thank you for that. We thank you that you rose victoriously to open the door for us to a relationship with God, a life giving relationship with God. Today unlock our minds and our hearts. And I pray that you the living God meet us by the power of the Holy Spirit. We thank You, Jesus. Amen. The title of the sermon today is locked doors and minds. This has been, and what a year, what a year it has been, the phrase lock down has been used over and over. So what comes to mind when you think of things that are locked or locked doors? We lock the doors on our homes, you unlock to come in and you lock it as soon as you're in automatically. Door on your car, same thing you lock once you're in. Why, why, why? For security, for safety, to keep the threats out or locks on businesses, you pull the door and the door is closed, it's not business hours or a locked door representing confinement, a prison, detention center where the doors clang ominously as they shut. Again, the person that's locked up in a prison, for example, is locked up for our safety, driven perhaps by fear. Two basic reasons to lock a door to keep someone out keep something in, keep someone or something out, keep someone or something in, same motivation for both. It's a fear of a real or perceived danger. On Easter Sunday today, as we look at Luke 24, we also see the disciples behind locked doors. Why? Who locked the doors? They did. Why? Why did they lock the doors? For the same reason that we do, keep danger out. They're on edge, why? The Lord has been arrested, Jesus Christ in a mockery of a trial has been executed brutally. The Lord has been crucified, and no one comes back from that alive. And the disciples think they might come for us as well. They're afraid for their lives. They're reeling, they're cast into fear and to despair, and they also feel guilty. Their consciences feel guilt and shame, why? For having abandoned their Lord and Savior at his greatest moment of need. They're numb, they're deflated, they're defeated, they're miserable, they're confused, they're also skeptical. They don't believe anymore. They don't believe everything that Jesus has taught them for three years. They don't believe that the miracles were real, that he had real power, they don't believe because it seems like he's been defeated. So not only did they lock their doors, they locked their minds. And that's where we find ourselves in Luke 24, what a text, what a chapter. Would you look at the text with me, Luke 24:36. "As they were talking about these things, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, 'Peace to you.' But they were startled and frightened and thought they saw a spirit. And he said to them, Why are you troubled? Why do doubts arise in your hearts? See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself, touch me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.' And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. And while they still disbelieved for joy and were marveling, he said to them, 'Have you anything here to eat?' They gave him a piece of broiled fish and he took and ate before them. Then he said to them, 'These are my words that I spoke to while I was still with you that everything written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled," then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, 'Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. Behold, I'm sending the promise of my Father upon you to stay in the city until you were clothed with power from on high.' Then he led them out as far as Bethany and lifting up his hands, he blessed them. While he blessed them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven. And they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy and were continually in the temple blessing God." This is the reading of God's holy in our infallible, authoritative word, may you write these beautiful, eternal truths upon our hearts. Three points, first one is unbelieving. The second is unbelievable. And the third one's blessed to bless, unbelieving. The context is that Jesus just came back from the dead. And what happened in chronological order? In the morning, he appears to Mary and some other women. In the afternoon, he found Peter and spoke to him. What a conversation that must have been as he restores Peter into faith with the Lord. Then he appeared to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, and in the evening, he appears to the 11 disciples minus Thomas. He meets with Thomas later. So the disciples are in the room, they've locked the door, and when they hear a bang, it's the disciples from the road to Emmaus that met with Jesus Christ, the resurrected Christ, and they're sharing with the disciples, "Hey, Jesus just met us. Jesus just unlocked our minds, our hearts burned as he explained the Scriptures and they still didn't believe." Same thing the women had told him, he had told them that Jesus came back from dead, the tomb is empty, they still didn't believe. And then out of nowhere, as they're talking about these things that someone said that there were sightings, someone said that Jesus came back from the dead. Jesus himself stood among them and said, "Peace to you." He does not open the door, and the Gospel of John it says that they locked the door for fear of the religious leaders, for fear that they would be crucified as well, for fear of death. And here Jesus shows up and says, "Peace to you," what an understatement. Peace to you, I'm bringing you peace. They're startled, they're frightened. And it's one thing to know the supernatural, so much different to encounter it. What's fascinating is, as you read the Gospels, there's hardly any details of the scorching. There's hardly any details of the crucifixion. It just says, they crucified him. And there's hardly any details of the resurrection. How did it happen? Did Jesus roll away the stone himself? No, he didn't need to. He had a perfect resurrected body with features that our bodies do not have. He could walk through material things, the stone wasn't rolled away for Jesus, it was rolled away for us. It's utterly unexpected that that would happen. That's where I want to start. And I want to start there because in the 21st century, we think that we're so much different than the people that came before us. We just do. We think we're so much smarter than the people came before us, we just do. Who's smarter, you or your mom? Trick question. Don't look at it. Who's smarter? Who's smarter, you or your grandparents? They didn't even have an iPhone. Who's smarter? One of the things we think, we think the disciples, they were so dumb, they believe that Jesus came back from the dead. No, they didn't. That's where I want to start. They did not believe it. He's before them. He is in front of them and the resurrected body and they do not believe it. Verse 37. They were startled and frightened and thought that they saw a spirit. Their first response is fear, not faith. Why do they believe that this was a spirit? Not because he was some shadow we barely material figure. When Mary saw Jesus, she thought he was a gardener, so he looked a little different, but he still looked human. The disciples on the road to Emmaus, they had no doubt that they were talking to a human being. He was a little different. Why? He had a perfect body with no aging, no decay, no imperfections, it's the glorious resurrected body. Why did they think they saw a spirit? Because that was the only category they had in their mind. And Jesus comes in and he busts these categories. They believe as we do that the spirit continues to live on after death. We believe that. We believe that dying is not the end, we believe that there's something else. When someone dies, no one stands up at the funeral and says, "They're gone, period." Nobody says that. What do they say? They're in a better place. They're in a better place. Why? Because we believe that the spirit lives on, and the disciples didn't believe. And I wonder if that's where you are today. And I do want to acknowledge that most people around us in a city like this do not believe that Jesus came back from the dead because they don't believe that people come back from the dead. Perhaps you believe that the story is a fabrication or you believe that the disciples stole the body, that this is a myth or perhaps it's just teaching theological truths that because Jesus theologically, or metaphorically rose from the dead, that there's hope for us. And one of the reasons why this is the case in a city like Boston, is because we've assumed the false premise that intelligence and faith are at odds, that smart people do not believe things like this, as if intelligence gets in the way of believing in Jesus, as if intelligent people only believe what is true, as if intelligent people are purely rational. They're not. We're not, I'll be nice, we're not. We're not purely rational. I can give you a million examples. We are not purely rational, we hold biases. We're not just creatures of thought, and truth, we're creatures of feeling and emotion and desire. We hold biases and the biases cloud our judgment, that's always been a reality. More than 2000 years ago, Cicero observed that there's no ideas so ridiculous that it hasn't been believed by some intellectual or another. I was having conversation with a gentleman who is a dean of a university. And we're talking about the idea that to come up with a PhD, to get a PhD, to write a PhD dissertation, nowadays, you can't just say, especially in theology, you can't publish anything that's true because that's already been done. So you had to concoct a brand new idea, brand new idea. And that's what gets you published. In our time, Paul Johnson observed about Bertrand Russell. Bertrand Russell, by the way, was an atheist and he was one of the greatest philosophers of the 20th century. And his friend Paul Johnson, and his work To Hell with Picasso says this Bertrand Russell was the only philosopher I've come across who always conveyed his meaning clearly, and because he did, you could debate the merits of his conclusions, and they were usually wrong. Nobody disputed Russell who had a powerful brain, but equally, no one in his or her senses would go to him for advice on anything that mattered. Intelligence actually sometimes gets in the way of us seeing reality as it is because intelligence sometimes can lead to self-deception. The more intelligent you are, the more prone you can be to self-deception where you ignore evidence, twist logic, lash out lie as a means to justify the end we hope is right. And sometimes what gets in the way of us truly seeing reality as it is, is the mind locking desire or emotion of fear. A lot of intelligent people, you fear that you've been wrong, therefore, you do everything not to look at the evidence. Fear gets in the way. And psychologists can tell you, you can just google this, the mind locking power of fear, perhaps is fear of change when we think of God. Fear of what God could require of you, fear of difficulty, fear of giving up what we love, fear of losing control, fear of standing out, fear of what people will think, fear of men, and to a very great degree people believe what we want to believe, what's easy to believe because fear gets in the way. And I think the main fear when it comes to God was the disciples, you're in that moment, what's their fear? Their fear, I'm talking past the fear of getting crucified like Jesus, past the fear of dying, I think the greatest fear as they see Jesus Christ materialized in the flesh before them. I think their greatest fear is that of punishment. It's a fear of guilt and shame. We've abandoned you Jesus, we've denied you, Jesus, we betrayed you, Jesus, Jesus is here to punish us. That he is here to reveal our guilt, to expose our shame. God did not create the world with fear. In the garden of Eden, there was no fear, in paradise there was no fear. When does fear enter into the world? After the fall. Adam and Eve sin, they reject God, they rebel against God, and God comes looking for Adam. He says, "Adam, where are you? Where are you?" And what does Adam say? He said, "I heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid. I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself. I was afraid." The disciples that moment on Easter morning, the emotion that they felt was fear. Jesus is in front of them, and they fear. Jesus, are you here to punish us? And you know what Jesus says? The first words, peace to you. I'm here to bring shalom. I'm here to bring reconciliation. I'm here to bring forgiveness. I'm here to take your guilt and your shame from you, peace to you. They were unbelieving. And then Jesus gives them more evidence to the point where they can't believe this is true. And they go from unbelieving to unbelievable. And he says to them, "Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your heart? See my hands and my feet that it is I myself. Touch me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have." And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and feet, and while they still disbelief for joy, and were marveling, he said to them, "Have you anything here to eat? And they give him a piece of broiled fish and he took it and ate before them." What I found fascinating about this text is he keeps building a case for them. You don't believe, see, look, you don't believe, touch, feel, you don't believe, hey, you got anything to eat? This is one of my favorite things about Jesus, the resurrected Jesus. I love to eat. My family loves to... We come from a family where we're fast eaters, and the reason why we're fast eaters, I have four siblings, and whenever there's a meal before us, who gets the most food? Whoever eats the fastest. And with my kids, I've got four daughters, is the same thing. I made four bags of chicken wings yesterday, chicken wings, and I got three. I had three left because my kids are smart, they grab as much as they can onto their plate and they shield it. I love that Jesus eats here in a glorified body, meaning in the glorify body, in the resurrection, in heaven, it's a real material thing. It's a physical reality and we in heaven will eat and calories do not matter, praise God, hallelujah. Percentage body fat, everyone gets 4%, everybody, because we don't have to store anything, praise God. Jesus is here eating, why does he do this? He's building a case for them. Not only that, not only that, he's showing that the glorified body is different. The resurrection is different. Jesus brought Lazarus back from the dead, not on his glorified body. Lazarus came back from the dead only to die. His body still succumbed to sickness and death. Jesus comes back, and he says, "Here, it is I," not just it is I, it is I myself. It is I myself. Why does he say I and myself? The Word of God, the living Word of God, when he speaks every word matters. What is he saying? He says I myself, but it's a new self, it's a renewed self, but it's still me. The fact what kind of fish do we got here? What kind of fish? It's broiled fish. That's an interesting little adjective that's included. Why? Because this is true, it happens. Eye witness account, eye witnesses just remember weird details. This wasn't made up. And Jesus says, "Why do doubts arise in your hearts?" And he eats, and he eats not just to prove that he has a resurrected body, he eats with them because in ancient cultures, food was a sign of fellowship. There's a sign of acceptance and meaning I forgive you, I accept you, peace be to you. Let's eat together. Why does he do all of this? Because he knows where their faith is. Their faith has crumbled. Three years they spent with Jesus Christ, and it feels like everything was for nothing. They're gutted, and Jesus meets them in this place of hopelessness, faithlessness, doubt. And not just in the Gospel of Luke, in the Gospel of Matthew, Matthew 28:16-17, this is right before the Great Commission, some of the last verses of the Gospel of Matthew. "Now the 11 disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw him, they worshiped him, but some doubted." After everything, there's still doubting. Why? Because that's our natural predisposition. So what overcame their doubt, what overcame their doubt was new evidence. And it's intellectually dishonest and actually foolish not to reassess your beliefs when you're presented with brand new evidence. And that's what happened with the disciple. See my hand, see my feet, touch, see, why hands and feet? Why hands and feet? Why not shoulders? Why not knees? Why hands and feet? Why? Because they get the wounds. That's why. So he's not just overcoming their minds, he's overcoming the doubt in their hearts. I have died for you, I'm proving it. I love you, I'm proving it. Now the disciples have a decision to make, they're thinking. You can almost see the thought bubbles, and they're thinking, what are they thinking about? New evidence, resurrected Christ. Now I got a decision to make, is this believable? And not just in the sense of a theory, is this is believable in now I'm going to change my life because of this reality. Augustine in Predestination of the Saints says, "No one believes anything unless one first thought it believable. Everything that is believed is believed after being preceded by thought. Not everyone who thinks believes, since many think in order not to believe, but everyone who believes thinks in believing and believes in thinking, they're thinking, there's evidence." Jesus is building a case in order get them to a place of believing and true belief is something where we actually change our lives based on this reality. Will we believe? The disciples are thinking that we are sinners. Will we believe that we're such great sinners, that the Son of God had to die for us? Will we believe that we are so loved that the Son of God would die for us? Will we believe that this is truly God, and believe so much that we will bend our lives to this reality, believe in such a way where we submit to the King that's risen from the dead, yield is authority, believe in a way where we actually do what he says, whatever he says. In past years, I've made the case for the resurrection that Jesus really came back from dead. Factually, historically, I've done that. What I found is that's kind of boring for a lot of people. You can do that, you can go back, you can look at the primary documents, you can study N.T. Wright, The Resurrection of the Son of God, it's like 1,100 pages. It's tremendous. It's tremendous. This year, I want to turn the tables. Oh, how the tables turn, Turntables, Michael Scott. I want to flip it around. I want to flip it around, not how do I prove that the resurrection happened? Instead, I want to ask, how can you explain the world if the resurrection did not happen? How do you explain? How do you explain that alien nature of the Christian message, a message about God entering the world as a man, dying for our sins, rising to a new and everlasting life. And not simply that this is a new message, not simply that this is not the message that the Jewish people would have expected about the Messiah. No, it's the flat contradiction of everything that the Jewish people who were the first believer in Jesus Christ, that the Jewish people believed the Messiah would do, it's the opposite. Why did the disciples have such a hard time believing as Jesus is in front of them, why? Because they could not believe that the Messiah who was supposed to come and conquer and reign, they couldn't believe that he would suffer and die. He was supposed to destroy the wicked not be destroyed by the wicked. He was supposed to establish the kingdom of God not fall victim to the kingdom of man. That's why the disciples struggled to understand what Jesus was saying when he predicted suffering and death, and he told them over and over. So what changed their minds? What would it take to change their minds? And not just their minds, but that of the 500 plus as St. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15, that saw Jesus come back from there. What would change the mind of Saul of Tarsus, who then became the Apostle Paul, one of the intellectual titans of human history, what would turn him from persecuting Christian, murdering Christians as he did with Stephen to actually dying for the faith? What would have happened to actually make them so convincing that hundreds and thousands of other people would believe to start a movement that transformed the world? Where do they get the museum to sacrifice everything, risk everything? What turn them from being cowards, fearing, closing the door to opening the door and then saying no matter what, you crucify me, fine. What in the world would do that? And Peter actually was crucified upside down. Why weren't the enemies of this message capable of shutting them up? What would have done it? What would it have taken? And then what would have led them to change their day of worship? What day is today? Sunday, Sunday, why are we worshiping on a Sunday? And one of the commandments actually says keep the Sabbath day holy. For the Jewish people, it was in their bones that Saturday was the day that they worship, there was a sacred character of the Sabbath that was fixed deep in their bones. Saturday had been the Sabbath, since the beginning of the world, they were Sabbath keepers. And then all of a sudden they start worshiping on Sunday, why? What would it take? And on top of that, how did Jewish believers just change the character of God? Remember, World History you studied the religions in ninth grade. And one of the things that monotheistic religions, monotheistic religions, Judaism, monotheistic religions, one God, and all of a sudden the Jewish believers believe that this man Jesus Christ, is God. And he sends the Holy Spirit. Now there's a trinity, one God, three persons, what would it take? And I would submit to you, it would take the resurrection of Jesus Christ to harbor all of these changes. And how does he do it? He does it by blessing them when he blesses them to bless, and the blessing, the first one is the blessing of Scripture fulfilled. Jesus Christ in verse 44, has a Bible study with the disciples here as he's eating the fish. Then he said to them, "These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you that everything written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled." Jesus takes the whole Hebrew Scriptures and he explains to them in all the three divisions of the Hebrew Bible, the three divisions, law of Moses, the prophets of the Psalms, he explains them that everything is about me. That's the hermeneutic, through which he says we are to read all of the Scriptures. For thousands of years, God has been revealing himself in the Scriptures, in the law. He launches the old covenant with his people, with the blood of the sacrificial animals and he said, "That is the point to a new covenant of Jesus Christ." The daily sacrifice is pointed and begged for ultimate atoning sacrifice, the Passover lamb. The Passover lamb pointed to Jesus Christ in his sufferings, the prophets, talking about Scriptures like Isaiah 53, about the suffering servant or Hosea 6:2, when the Psalms 22 talks about his hands and his feet being pierced centuries before crucifixion was even invented. Hosea 6:2 talking about that he would come back. Psalm 16 talking about that God wouldn't let his holy one be left in the grave. Why? Why does Jesus do this? Jesus to prove his resurrection, stands before them, shows him his hands and his feet, eats a fish. And he says, "That's cool. Now open up your Bibles. Let's have a Bible study." Why does he do that? Because there's power in the Word of God. He didn't want them to root their beliefs in just experience or feelings. As great as that is, he wanted them to root their faith in the Holy Scriptures. The Living Word of God is opening the written Word of God and showing that the written Word of God is as alive as the Living Word of God. This is why we do what we do at Mosaic, what are we doing? We're opening the Scriptures, we're opening the Scriptures and explaining. Someone asked me, "How in the world did you start this church? How did you start this church?" And the person he's in the business world, so he understands how organizations work. So how did you start this church? Because starting a church is like starting a business except you've got a product that no one wants. We've got a product where the thing I stand up and say, everything that I stand up and say you are winking sinners. You're so terrible. You're awful. There's no hope for you, there's no hope. That's where we start every time. And then we go to Jesus every time, every time, every time. How? Because of the living word of God. In 2021, we do the same thing that they've done through the centuries, we open up the Word of God, we open, we do what Jesus did. And Jesus doesn't just read the Scriptures, he reveals the Scriptures, and that's verse 45, then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures and said to them, "Thus it is written that the Christ should suffer, and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem." Has Jesus told them this before? Yes, he has. On two occasions of the Gospel of Luke, he tells them that he was going to die and rise from the dead. And on both occasions, it said, "It was hidden from them," Luke 9, so they did not grasp it. And Luke 18 disciples didn't understand it. Its meaning was hidden from them. And Jesus Christ here, it says, "He sovereignly opens their minds." Their minds have been closed, there's a spiritual blindness and the Holy Scriptures now are illumined by the Holy Spirit through Jesus Christ, in the same way that he passed through the walls of that house. They didn't ask for it. He passes through the walls of their mind, and he does it through the Scriptures. How does he do that? How does he plant faith in their minds? By overcoming their fears. Fear of being punished, fear of the unknown, fear of the negative sides of life, the fear, fear, fear. Why did the resurrected Christ do this to his disciples? Why did he do it to them? Why only them? This is a fascinating question, this is a fascinating thought experiment. If you want it to grow Christianity as quickly as possible, and you are coming back from the dead to whom would you reveal yourself? You're the resurrection of Christ, you can reveal yourself to absolutely anybody. Why are you going to reveal yourself to some fishermen and tax collectors, insurrectionist, and the disciples, why would you do that? Why didn't the resurrected Christ appear to Herod or Pilate or Caiaphas or the Sanhedrin? Why didn't he appear to Tiberius in the Roman Senate? Why didn't he do that? Why did he reveal himself to these people? Why? Part of the reason was it was an act of judgment. The religious leaders rejected Jesus Christ. And when you reject Jesus Christ, and you get to a point of no return, you'll get rejected by God. That's part of the gospel message that you can get to a point where you reject God. A lot of people say Jesus Christ died for everybody. He died for those who would believe. If you do not believe this message, there will be a point where you get rejected, that's part of this message. His appearance to unbelievers wouldn't have made a difference. And Jesus gives us this theology in the parable of Lazarus and the rich man in Luke 16, where it talks about the Lazarus who goes to heaven after he dies, and the rich man does not. And verse 27, the rich man's speaking to the Lord, "Then I beg you, Father, send him, Lazarus to my Father's house, for I have five brothers so that he may warn them lest they also come into this place of torment. And Abraham said, 'They have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them.' And he said, 'No, Father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.' And he said to him, 'If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.'" Here is Jesus saying that our minds are so locked from God in of ourselves, even if Jesus Christ would come in, show himself in the flesh, we naturally do not believe, why? Because evidence is never the issue. This is what a lot of people think, "If God just showed up, then I believe in him." Believe how? Believe that he just exists? That's not true faith, that's not the faith that Jesus Christ is demanding. True Faith is a faith that yields to his authority, where you shape your life around the fact that God is and he is who he says he is. People who crucified Jesus had seen miracle after miracle. They knew Jesus had resurrected Lazarus a few weeks before his crucifixion. So it's not evidence that make someone a Christian, it's not. It's not evidence, it's not intelligence. In second coming, the Scripture says that Jesus will come back, and there will be a group of people who will try to fight him, who will try to raise up armies against the living God in futility. And Jesus appeared to these hardhearted, to Pilate, to Caiaphas, to the Sanhedrin, to Tiberias, you know what they would have done? They would have tried to crucify him again. So he doesn't appear to them. So this brings us to a point where this is so crucial. To become a Christian, to see God for who he is, you got to beg him to unlock your mind, to soften your heart, God, please, please let me see the truth. He has to illuminate your darkened mind. To believe, to know the truth, you need to embrace the fact that you can't do it on your own, you need to embrace the gift God, please save me. That's part of the repentance message that we need to repent of our sins. And part of the sin is willful disbelief. Stuart Jackman wrote a book called The Davidson Affair, The Davidson Affair. And this is a little while back, but he imagines Jesus coming back from the dead in the modern era, and he is an investigative reporter, and he works for no television station. So this gentleman is called Cass Tennel. He's sent by his network to cover the story of the purported resurrection of Jesus Davidson, the son of David, Jesus Davidson. So Tennel goes and it's in the modern era, and he goes and he interviews everyone who was involved. He interviews first Pilate, and Pilate says, "Oh, yeah, they stole the body." And then he goes, and he interviews Herod, is the same thing, the grave robbing store, then he interviews Thomas. And Thomas says, "I didn't believe but then I saw," and then he interviews Mary Magdalene and, and the other disciples and he hears their electrifying testimonies. That they've really changed, that they really believe that they saw Jesus Christ. And the story begins taking on a completely different character. And try as he would Cass Tennel, the hard bitten reporter begins to become persuaded that Jesus did come back from the dead. And he starts putting the documentary together with the hope that he can get others to believe what he believes that this is true. And as he puts this together, one of his bosses says to him, "No, no, no, you got to get this idea out of your head that you are going to convince anybody," and they're having this conversation. And the boss says, "Even if Davidson has come back to life, Cass, these people don't have a chance." And Cass says, "I think they do." No Cass you know they don't, you can't change the world with a handful of wise sayings, a seasoning of compassion and a miracle or two, even if one of the miracles is a dead man coming back to life. And the boss says, "Come on Cass, it's been long day, time we went home." Cass said hopelessly, "But the world he promised them the freedom," and the boss says, smiles with the tired smile and says, "It's no use, Cass we like it in prison. We don't want to be rescued. We like it in prison, we don't want to be rescued." Part of the gospel message, the resurrection of Jesus Christ is that Jesus came to rescue us, came to open the doors, to set us free. He said you will know the truth and the truth will set you free, free from lies, free from sin, free from the captivity of the enemy, free from fear. He wants to replace our fear with faith. So if you are a Christian, for us today, we rejoice in the glory of Jesus Christ rising from the dead, and we need to bless God from the bottom of our hearts for unlocking our minds and our hearts. Bless him for making your heart burn with his voice and truth. And if you're not a Christian, or if you're not sure that you're Christian, I plead with you to plead with God. Saying, "God, please unlock my mind. If this is true, help me understand, give me eyes to see, give me a heart to love and to receive." He did that for the disciples. He's done that for me. I hope he does that for you as well. Luke 24:47-49. And Jesus says, "And that repentance for the forgiveness of sins." That's our message, repentance for the forgiveness, "It should be proclaimed in his name to all nations beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And behold, I'm sending you the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high." This is the message this is the Gospel, Jesus died for our sins, he died the death that we deserve to die because we wouldn't live the life that he called us to live. And when we repent, he forgives us. And how can we believe this? How do people believe this? Because of the power of the Holy Spirit. And Jesus says, once you believe our job is to proclaim it. That's why this church exists. That's why Mosaic exists. That's why 12 years ago at the age of 26, apparently I'm still a millennial, whatever that category means. I'm like an early millennial, at the age of 26, I went to seminary 24. You know what most young men do in their 20s? Not go to seminary and definitely not playing churches. And we had this audacious vision of coming to Boston, one of the godless cities in the whole world. Not just non-believing but anti-God. We just had this vision to start a church. How? By the power of the Holy Spirit. God started saving people. The first person that we baptize is right here today, Vaughn, right up there, Vaughn there you are. Stand up, Vaughn. Stand up, bro. He's the man. Oh, he's so humble. He didn't stand up completely. We baptize in the YMCA pool, the YMCA in Huntington Avenue. Why, why? Vaughn, why did you believe? For the same reason why I believe, why did I believe? Because God said your mine. I'm unlocking your mind and your heart and you are safe. That's how we do it. This is our message, and we do this by the power of the Holy Spirit. "And then Jesus led them out," in verse 50, "As far as Bethany lifting up his hands, he blessed them. And while he blessed them, he parted from them, was carried up into heaven, and they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy and were continually in the temple blessing God. He blesses them, he blesses them with joy, and then they return the blessing to God. They bless God." Early on, when we started the church, one of the first members of the church was a nice lady named Susan and Susan Hawking and I really connected, our families connected because she had studied Russian. And Susan lived in an assisted living home because Susan had many disabilities and one of the disabilities that she had was when she was two years old, she had cancer in her eye and her eye was removed. And we met Susan and one of the things that we did and I look back now, in her 20s, my wife and I would go and we'd drive to Susan's assisted living home in Brighton and we drive her to church, and she liked church. And she liked the fact that we had food after services. Back when we were starting we would bribe people with food. It was very godly because Jesus did food, we did food. And Susan and I just we maintain a relationship and for the past few years, she hasn't been able to go to church, because she got that sick. And Susan would call me, she would call me all the time. I have 16 voicemails from Susan that aren't open on my phone. And we have that set up a time. I said, "Susan, I can't just answer the phone anytime, let's schedule a time to have a conversation." And every Friday afternoon she would call me at 4PM. Last Friday, she called me and I had never heard her voice that weak. And Sunday, she called, I wasn't preaching, Pastor Shane was preaching last Sunday. I wasn't preaching. And she calls me I'm like, "Susan never calls me on Sunday." And she calls me and she said, "Yana, I'm in hospice." And she said, "But they're telling me that I'm going to be released soon." And then she said, "Yana, what's the Russian word for Sunday?" I said, "I can't remember what the Russian word for Sunday." I said, "Susan's was [foreign language 00:44:07]." And she says, "Isn't that the same word for resurrection?" I said, "Yes, Susan, it is." And then she said, "Will you visit me?" I said, "Yeah, I'll visit you soon, hopefully." And on Wednesday, I got a text message Susan passed away. Susan, loved Jesus Christ. She loved the Lord. And Susan today is in the presence of Jesus. I told my daughters as Susan died, one of my daughters started bawling. My other daughter comes in and says, "Why are you crying? Susan's dancing with Jesus, and Susan has two eyes." She does, and a glorified body. This is what we believe. So the disciples, what changed them from being locked in a room afraid of death to saying, "Crucify me." If you're going to come at me and you're going to crucify me for the message, come at me. What changed is this truth, this truth that Jesus Christ died [inaudible 00:45:09], that Jesus Christ has the keys of death and Hades. So on Resurrection Sunday, what do we proclaim? We proclaim that Jesus Christ, they tried as they... With everything, they had tried to lock him down, they couldn't. The Gospel can't be locked out. Jesus is the key to life. And Jesus said, "I am the resurrection and the life and anyone and everyone who believes in this message that Jesus Christ is the key to life, he is life, he is the resurrection and the life, if you believe that, though you die, you shall still live a resurrected body." So there's literally as Christians, nothing to fear. Let's pray. Lord Jesus, we thank you for this gospel message. We thank you for this truth. We thank you that You rose from the dead, that you defeated Satan's sin and death, and you did it to give us life. So Lord, if there's anyone who's still not a believer listening to this message, I pray unlock their minds, sovereignly unlock their minds, give them the gift of repentance, the gift of faith, the gift of new life, the gift of eternal life. And we do thank you, Holy Spirit for building your church, the church of Christ, and continue to use us to proclaim this message and we pray this in Jesus name, amen.
Easter Sunday
April 12, 2020
Audio Transcript: Hello welcome to our online Easter service. Greetings, happy Easter, happy resurrection day, we're so glad you're with us. It's strange not worshiping together on Easter. However, we have access to Jesus Christ because of his resurrection from anywhere anyhow even in our PJ's, we will worship him. One of the things that we do at Mosaic as a church on Easter Sunday is we do a call and response. That's been done in the church throughout the ages. I say 'Christ is risen' and I welcome you to say, 'he is risen indeed' three times, louder and more emphatically every time. So would you join in with me? Christ is risen. Christ is risen. And Christ is risen. Praise God. Let us pray over the preaching of God's holy word. Heavenly father we thank you for your resurrecting power. We thank you that because of the death, the burial and the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, we have access to you, to worship you the great God of the universe in spirit and in truth no matter where we are, no matter where we're from no matter our background we come to you Lord. We bring our worries, our anxieties, our burdens and we ask that you replace them with joy and peace and gladness. And we today want to celebrate the resurrecting power of Christ. Lord, we thank you that you make sense of all the pain and the suffering. Because of the resurrection, because of Easter Sunday, because of Christ rising from the dead, you shine your light of brightness upon our darkest moments and you redeem them. And I pray that you bless our time in the holy scriptures. Administer to each one of us and fill our hearts with joy. And we pray this in Christ's holy name, amen. Boston is a city of champions. It's a city built on comebacks as our fearless mayor Marty Walsh said recently in a news conference. We will come back from this. We will come back stronger and we will come back stronger together. However, my prayer is that we come back stronger and we come back to the Lord. That our strength isn't just in ourselves, it's not just in our pride or ambition or our resilience but it's in the Lord. The title of the sermon today is, 'There is a Cure'. A cure not just to corona or cure to our physical ailments. There's a cure to the worst disease that besets all of us and that's the disease of sin. Because of the Lord, Jesus Christ has sacrificed his death, his burial, we have a cure that's greater than the polio vaccine or penicillin or insulin or even a corona vaccine that hopefully will be created soon. We have a cure for our greatest problem. In the resurrection of Jesus Christ, God took the most hopeless, the darkest, the saddest, the ugliest most miserable event in the history of the world and he transformed it into the most hope filled, the most beautiful, the most joyful event and that's the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Today we're gonna look at Matthew 28 and the resurrection account and the context is that on Friday, on Good Friday, Jesus Christ, the king of the universe, died on a cross through crucifixion. He was bruised, he was bloodied, he was scourged, and he died and with his last gasp, it seemed that we lost our last grasp of hope and on Saturday, Jesus was just a corpse in a tomb. Just, rotting away. And the disciples were despondent. They didn't know what to do, they were weeping and Sunday morning, they went fishing. However the ladies, the women who followed Jesus, they woke up early at dawn and they had a mission to come and to finish the burial process, to anoint Jesus' body and yes they're grieving as well. However, they want some closure. And on the way to the tomb where Jesus was buried, they start wondering, how are we going to move the massive stone with which the tomb was sealed? Perhaps we'll ask the Roman guards that were placed there to keep the disciples from stealing the body as the pharisees had warned. Who will roll away this weight? Who will remove this burden? Who will get rid of this symbol of death? And as they approach, they feel the ground rumbling and they even stumble a bit and that's where we find ourselves in Matthew 28 verses one through 10, Matthew 28, one through 10, would you look at the text with me? "Now after the Sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. 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. And for fear of him the guards trembled and became like dead men. But the angel said to the women, 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. Come, see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead, and behold, he's 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 worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, 'Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me." This is the reading of God's holy, inerrant, infallible, authoritative word, may he write these eternal truths upon our hearts. Here in the beginning, I just wanna focus on a very curious detail perhaps that you, a detail you haven't noticed before. We know about the angel, we know about the stone being rolled away but the angel which is a massive warrior of the Lord, like lightning, it says he looked like lightning. He was glorious, when angels appear in holy scripture, people would fall down in trepidation and even were tempted to worship them. This wasn't just a little chubby little baby with a diaper and a harp on a cloud. An angel's a warrior of God, descends from heaven to roll away this stone. And he does this effortlessly, it's like a Tic Tac like a cookie that he just flings away from the entrance and what does this angel do? This angel takes a seat on the stone. He sits down on the stone. He sits on the rock. Can you see this, can you imagine this? Can you see this in your mind's eye? This glorious figure who has come from heaven, removes the stone from the tomb and he sits down. I like this angel, I can't wait to meet this angel. This is an angel with personality, this is an angel with attitude, just sits down on the stone. First of all you gotta ask why is this detail even included? What does it do to further the plot? It does nothing to further the plot. Why is it included in this text? Because of the eye witness accounts. The Marys couldn't forget this image. It was emblazoned on their hearts. An angel of God, sitting on the stone. We remember the most important details about, the most important memories in our lives. Just think about memories in your life that are vivid. That are it seems emblazoned on your heart and sometimes in particular when they come as a shock or perhaps with death. I remember where I was when I heard about Princess Diana dying. I remember exactly where I was when I heard about 9/11. It was freshman year in college and I remember walking out of my dorm room and as I was walking out the building, there was an all purpose room with a television. Everyone was crowded around it, I remember vividly that moment. And I remember details, strange details, like the color of the couches in that room. I remember the moment when Kobe Bryant died, when I heard about this news. I was actually in a membership class here, Mosaic, in the basement of Temple Ohabei. There are memories that are incredibly vivid, we remember the details, it's almost like we can't forget them. I remember when my family immigrated to the United States, I was five years old and I remember that my dad gave me two cans of condensed milk and he put one in one pocket and one in the other jacket pocket and I remember that memory vividly. I remember my first bike, a red bike with a little pouch I would hide matches in from my parents. I remember first day of high school. I remember getting my first car and I remember the smell of it. I remember the first fight I ever got in. I remember the second fight I ever got in which was against two guys and they remember that fight better than I do. And I remember, you have memories like this as well. I'll never forget the day I met my wife. I remember exactly what her hair looked like, exactly what she was wearing. The most important memories in our life come with details and they're vivid and we see this detail here. That Mary Madalene and the other Mary, they saw this angel and it was sitting on the stone. The other reason why it's included, not just because it happened, but also because there's deep theology in the stone. There's deep theology in the geology, if you will. What is a stone, a stone is dust that's been compressed over the ages, over time through heat and pressure. Well scripture talks about dust in Genesis three when humanity rebelled against God, the curse came as ascendance for our sin and this is what that sentence said. This is what God said to humanity. Genesis 3:19, "Till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken for you are dust. And to dust you shall return." The stone is symbolic of death. Compressed over time, pressure, heat and lots of death. And here the angel was sitting on the stone, a symbol of death in front of the tomb, a place of death and the angel was sitting on the rock of the grave, his job is done. He's just admiring the work of his hands. Just sitting there, just relaxing, just chilling out on a tombstone. And I love this image, the angel hanging out. This image is refreshing, I don't know if it is for you, it's refreshing, it's like a vacation for my soul. This is beauty in motion, poetry in action and he's not sitting because he's tired. Angels don't get tired. They don't need to rest. He's sitting because he's literally mocking death. Death has been humiliated and he's sitting there with disdain, big smile on his face, content. Just cheesing at this incredible work of redemption. Sitting defiantly, cool, calm, collected. Cool as a cucumber, cooler than the other side of the pillow he's at rest. Tranquility. And this is one of the things that Easter offers us today. It offers us rest for our souls, for our weary, sin sick souls. Jesus Christ says, today, everything around us might be shaking. The ground might be shaking, the guards in the story are shaking. But we don't have to be shaking, we can be at rest in Christ. Matthew 11:28, Jesus offers us incredible invitation. He says, "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." We can have rest from our anxiety, from worry, from our burdens, from fear. Matthew 28, five through six, this is what the angel says to the women. "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. Come see the place where he lay." This is incredible detail. He gives them a tour of the tomb, come, look, it's empty. Look to the left, that's where his body lay, it's gone. He's not here. The tomb is empty and there's an interesting detail here that the angel did not come down, did not descend in order to roll the stone away to let Jesus out. Jesus was already gone, he's already resurrected. His glorified body, he could move through the stone just like later in the text, he moves through walls. No, the angel doesn't come down to let Jesus out, he comes down to let Mary in, to let the disciples in. Come and see that because the tomb is empty, life is full of meaning and the resurrection power. Matthew 28 nine through 10, Jesus meets the Marys right after this account. "Behold Jesus met them and said, 'Greetings!' And they came up and took hold of his feet, they worshiped him and Jesus said to them again, Do not be afraid." This is what the stone is communicating, this is why that detail is there, the angel sitting on the stone. The stone is communicating, the stone is preaching. The stone has been transformed into a pulpit to communicate that sorrow has been rolled away. Grief has been replaced with glory. It's been transformed. All throughout scripture, you see stones as memorials used to remind people of the work of God. In first Samuel, there's a stone called the Ebenezer stone. It's the stone of help where Samuel says, God has helped us until this moment. We sing this text and these lyrics and come thou found, here I raise my Ebenezer, hither by thy help I come. And I hope by thy good pleasure safely to arrive at home. Jesus Christ tells us that we have a greater stone of remembrance and it's not just the stone that was rolled away. Yes that stone is important. That stone is given to us as a sign. We actually don't even have the stone. It's the most important stone in the history of the universe and it was used to seal off the most important tomb in the history of the universe and we have neither. Why, because for the early Christians, this wasn't that important. The memory to which the stone pointed and the memory to which the tomb pointed were more important than the memorial signs themselves. We don't need the memorial stone because we have the person of Jesus Christ with us. Easter doesn't mean that sad things do not happen. Sad things do happen. Good Friday was heart breaking. However, what Easter does is it shines light, it shines brightness on our past mourning. It makes sense of our suffering. It infuses our pain with purpose. On Good Friday, nothing made sense. On Easter Sunday, everything made sense. The gospel makes sense of everything. Easter illuminates yesterday's tears. It illuminates yesterday's tombs. Everything sad will come untrue. This is what Easter promises. The resurrection turns a sign of death, the stone, into the ultimate sign of life. The stone still weighs as much as it weighed on Good Friday. On Easter Sunday, same weight but now the weight isn't a weight of grief, it's a weight of glory, it's a sign of victory, it's a trophy of the ultimate victory that Jesus Christ took a stone and he hurled it at the Goliath of death, a stone cold killer and Jesus Christ smacked right in the forehead and he's toppled. And in the death of Jesus Christ, we see the death of death itself where Jesus takes the sword of death and chops off its head with its own sword. Jesus Christ tells us, the stone is a sign. What's it a sign of? It's a sign of the fact that we have victory. It's also a sign of the fact that we have a sure foundation to build our lives on and that's the foundation of Jesus Christ and of the gospel. In Matthews seven, Jesus tells us that storms come to everybody. And what matters most in how you get through the storm is what is your foundation? Matthews seven, 24 through 27. "Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew and beat on the that house but it did not fall because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew and beat against that house and it fell and great was the fall of it." Oh dear friend, are you building your life on the foundation of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the only sure foundation that's been proven, it's been tested, it's been verified by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The rock became a footstool for the angel as a symbol of Jesus Christ sitting down on this throne when he's ascended and scripture says, "He will put his enemies and use his enemies "as a foot stool for his feet." And the ultimate enemies Jesus has conquered. Satan, sin and death, Jesus conquered death. He's the ultimate victor, the ultimate conqueror and in Christ we are more than conquerors. Today we celebrate life. Easter tells us, the message of life is a message from God who is the source of all life. He is the life giver and no matter the darkness in our life, he brings light down. We love life. I love life, yes sometimes things are hard and there are dark times but there are moments when everything clicks. There are moments where everything flows, everything comes together. Almost magical, majestic. You wake up in the perfect mood, the perfect amount of sleep, even your hair looks perfect. You have a perfect cup of coffee, there's a perfect amount of sunlight coming through the window. Nothing annoys you, no one around you annoys you, everyone's in a tremendous mood. Perhaps it's your birthday and all you hear is good news, that's the only news you get all day, you got that promotion. You got that raise. Your favorite team just won. You're planning the perfect dinner. Perhaps the perfect steak or perfect salad or perfect steak and salad, both and. You read a perfect book, you watch that perfect movie. Wear that perfect pair of jeans that finally fits because you woke up five pounds lighter. How did that happen, I don't know. You put on a crisp tee shirt, your friends text you and they send you the funniest memes or you go to a concert and it's spring. You feel reawakening in the air or you're at vacation. You're at one of those nice resorts with the drinks with the umbrellas and crisp ocean breeze or a Red Sox game on a balmy Sunday night. The kiss of a beloved, the smell of a baby that's not screaming, you sign the last check for the last payment of your school loans. The last payment on your mortgage and you're moving in to your dream house. And Tom Brady is still a patriot and he's won his seventh Super Bowl against, finally the Giants, it's perfect life. Peace, joy, happiness. We have moments like that and every single one of those moments, they whisper. They're whispers of eternity, they're whispers of something greater. They're signs to something more satisfying. This is how life should be but isn't. Why? 'Cause no matter how good life gets, there's always that reminder. That death is coming. It's coming for each of us. This is why we hate death because life is such a great gift. We despise death, it's an enemy. Scripture says that it surprises every single one of us. Catches us off guard although it's with us and it's such a downer, it's the ultimate kill joy. It's a cosmic buzz kill. It destroys and devastates and separates families, it separates parents from children and vice versa that leaves dreams and hopes shattered. And works unfinished be they symphonies or art or albums or books. Why is there so much death in this world? Scripture says that was part of the curse. Part of our rebellion against God because of sin. What's the connection between sin and death? Well sin is death. Sin doesn't just lead to death. Scripture says that sin is death. The sting of death is sin. When you think about sin like this, it makes more sense. Sin isn't just breaking commandments. Sin isn't just doing the wrong thing. Sin isn't just mistakes or screw ups or foibles or character flaws or being naughty. It's not Las Vegas and it's not Lynn, it's death. It's death of self. It's self destruction, it's self sabotage, self subversion, self deception. We know that we're supposed to be better, better versions of ourselves. We know what we're supposed to be, we know what we're supposed to do and we're still powerless to do it. Why? Because we're sick with sin. And the gospel says that Jesus Christ came. He took the weight of our burden, the stone of our sin upon himself. He took the sting of sin and he vanquished it. See, the gospel of Jesus Christ isn't just fire insurance just in case. The gospel of Jesus Christ is medicine for our sin sick souls. It's medicine for our stone cold hard hearts. Sin isn't just action, it's a condition. An incurable condition. Jeremiah 30 verse 12 says, "For thus says the Lord, Your hurt is incurable and your wound is grievous. There is none to uphold your cause, no medicine for your wound. No healing for you." That was the old testament. Because of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross in our place, there is a medicine. Four practical points, my dear friends, four practical points, we're all infected with sin so practically, number one, accept the diagnosis. Number two, take the medicine. Three, visit the doctor often. And four, share the doctor's contact info. First accept the diagnosis. The diagnosis is dire. We're not just suffering a fatal injury, a life threatening injury. It's terminal. Condition. Every single one of us suffers from this condition and there's no cure for it in and of ourselves. We can heal ourselves, there's no person who can heal us. There's no one else who we can trust in. We're all going to die. What this corona pandemic has shown us, it's that we can't get away from this. We're all dialed into the fact that we are mortal and we are mortal. And it's showed us that we need salvation. We need healing. Like we need healing from corona so much more, infinitely more we need healing from our sin. And God gives us signs of the fact that we are terminal through chaos and pandemics and calamities but he also gives us the law. In holy scripture, God gives us a law, the 10 commandments, and he gives us the law not so that we save ourselves by fulfilling but gives us the law as a divine diagnostic tool. We diagnose how sick we are by looking at the perfect law. Looking at the 10 commandments which Jesus summarized and he said this is the essence of the commandments. Love God with all your heart, soul, strength and mind. Love your neighbor as yourself. We don't love God with all of our fiber, with all of our being because there's so many other idols vying for our affection. We don't love neighbor as self because often we're too self absorbed. We fall short of the law and the law is given not to us to show just how sick we are. It can't cure us. It can't cure us of the disease, it's powerless to do that. It just shows us how far we're missing the mark that we don't measure up, that we're not good enough. All it does is diagnose, yes, test positive for sin. It can't do anything to cure us. So first of all, we need to go to the doctor and accept the diagnosis, yes I'm sick. And the doctor says, well I've got good news, I've got great news. There's a cure that Jesus has procured the medicine, so take it. We can't cure ourselves. No one else can cure us, only God can cure the incurable. And he does that by actually burying our sickness upon himself. Absorbing our sickness. Scripture says that he who knew no sin became sin so that we might become the righteousness of God. The moment you trust in Christ, repent of sin and believe in him, that moment, you're immediately cured. You're immediately cleansed from sin. Jesus swallows the incurable disease. Allows it to kill him and then comes back from the dead and his blood has an immunity to it and when we believe in Jesus Christ, his blood is in us. His blood, spiritually speaking, is in us and when God tests us again for sin, we test negative. Because in us we have new blood, the blood, the blameless blood of Jesus Christ. First Corinthians 15:54 and 56, "Death is swallowed up in victory. Jesus swallows up death. O death where is your victory? O 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 our Lord Jesus Christ." Jesus is victorious, Jesus has won, Jesus will win and in Christ we are more than conquerors. This winning, I will never get tired of. In him we are victorious. First Peter 2:24, how? "He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree on the cross that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed." There's an old paradox where the question goes like this, what happens when an irresistible force meets an immovable object? What happens when an irresistible meets an immovable object? That's what happened on the cross. The immovable object is God's holiness, his justice. The justice and condemnation wrath that we deserve for our selfishness, for living as if there is no God. For living lives indifferent toward God, for living as if we are our own God. It's an immovable object but there's an irresistible force and that's God's love. It's his determination to heal us and expense himself to heal for his own glory. And when an irresistible force meets an immovable object, what's gonna happen, well something incredible has to happen only a truly extraordinary event can resolve the paradox and that's what happened at the cross of Jesus Christ. God's justice and God's love, they come together. Where Jesus Christ sacrifices himself, absorbing God's wrath in order to forgive us. And that's what happened on the cross, this collision of our incurable disease, of our incurable wounds and God's irresistible power and desire to heal us. God himself in the form of Christ, stepped in to suffer our incurable pain, our incurable disease so that we might be made well, so that we might be healed. So that we might have life, true life. God does something incredible. He doesn't just forgive us of our sins, he doesn't just diagnose the problem, doesn't just give us medicine to heal us of our sickness, he does something else. He transforms us. He transforms us through the gospel by grace through faith in Christ, he transforms us and he does so by taking out our heart of stone and replacing it with a heart of flesh a heart that beats for Christ, a heart that loves God, longs to love God more, loves neighbor as self. A heart that's filled with new affections and new desires. Desire for righteousness. And this is what the way of righteousness is. Lots of people think that following God is gonna keep me from enjoying myself, false. False. What God does is he says, I'm not taking good from you. I'm giving good to you and I'm protecting you from everything that would harm you. I'm protecting you, I'm protecting your soul. So walk in the path of righteousness. That's what God does by giving us a new heart. And also this medicine turns bad fear into good fear. You see fear mentioned several times in this text. There's bad fear and the bad fear is the fear of the guards. The guards tremble as they see the angel. They see the resurrection happen. They see the angel come down, it's miraculous. And instead of placing their trust in Jesus Christ, instead of falling down at his feet and worshiping him, they tremble and they fall like dead. This is bad fear. That's Matthew 28, four. "And for fear of him the guards trembled and became like dead men." Bad fear is when what you revere most is threatened. That's actually all fear. When what you love most is threatened, when you think that what you love most what's most precious to you will be taken away. Well the guards, when they saw Christ, the resurrected Christ, when they saw the angel, they feared. They didn't love Christ, they feared because they saw in Christ an enemy to what they really love, to their true idols. And that was power or prestige or their positions. Perhaps it was money. Perhaps it was their life. They feared that Jesus would take their life and they loved their life more than Jesus. And that's why for some, Jesus Christ is a stone of stumbling. Where you look at Jesus as an opponent, as a threat to what you truly love. And this is what the gospel does, it transforms our affections, what we love most and it turns bad fear into good fear. Mary, both Marys, they fear as well and the angel says, don't fear. Jesus says don't fear and Jesus meets them and they fall down at his feet and they worship him and he says, "Do not be afraid." They were afraid because they thought they had lost that which was most precious to them, which was Christ. They didn't fear that they would lose life, they feared something that they loved more than life which was Christ. To them, Christ is life, he's the precious cornerstone. He's a stone more precious than diamonds or rubies or gold or silver. And when Christ appears, they worship him. He is life. There's nothing greater than Christ. That's why I say, in Paul it says for me to live is Christ. That's life, he is the life. He satisfies the soul, he fills our hearts with joy and gladness. And to die is gain, even if we die. That's why Christ said, don't fear those who take away the body. And can do nothing after. If our eternity is secure, if we are spending eternity with Christ in heaven, if he saved us from hell, there's nothing to fear. Bad fear is transformed into good fear. The greatest day in all of your life, if you live the best life, the little mental exercise that we did where you wake up on your perfect day, it's your birthday, et cetera et cetera. You can go through a day like that and still be empty on the inside. You can still feel dissatisfied. You can still feel tinges of shame and guilt and regret. But you can have a day without any of that. If you have Christ, you have everything that you need. He is life. Jesus Christ came back from the dead so we will never lose him. And because he was resurrected physically, he can resurrect our souls and ultimately, he'll resurrect our bodies. So accept the diagnosis. Take the medicine and visit the doctor often. Perhaps you've already done step one and two. Perhaps you have repented of your sin, yes Lord I'm a sinner, yes I need the grace but we need to go to the doctor daily, hourly. We need to make sure to keep the disease of sin in remission. You need to open your life to the doctor daily. Don't hide anything from him. Apply his healing thoroughly and completely. Why am I Christian? Why am I a follower of Jesus Christ? Because Jesus Christ came back from the dead. And Jesus Christ has changed my life. And he changes my life on a daily basis. Jesus is a person and when we fellowship with him, when we abide in him, when we have a relationship with him, his presence and his power come into our lives and they transform us. Sin leads to death. Sin is when we look to tombs for satisfaction. We go to the grave site, we go to the tombs in order to find life and Jesus takes stones away from the tombs in our life and says no, stop seeking life here, there's only death. That's what the good doctor does. And he does that through holy scripture where he says, this is the way of righteousness, this is the way to life. We also, we need the holy scriptures. Go to the scriptures daily, find satisfaction in the scriptures and also we need the church. Like never before, we need the church and not just to meet physically but we need to be interconnected with one another because we together are living stones built up as a spiritual house, a holy priesthood. And four, share the doctor's contact info. If you find a cure for corona, if you find a cure for cancer, if you find a cure for sin, you trumpet it from the rooftops and here's what's fascinating. We have the medicine but it needs to be distributed. We need a core of spiritual doctors to get this medicine out and that's all evangelism is. We're not converting, we're not proselytizing, we're not recruiting, we're just sharing the doctor's contact info. His name is Jesus and you can call him through prayer. Speaking to him. Say, Lord Jesus, forgive me of my sins today. Help me trust in you, I believe in you. I believe, help my unbelief, help me follow you. Do what the angel did, the angel shared Christ. Do what the Marys did, they shared the message of the resurrected Christ. Matthew 28 10, "Then Jesus said to them, Do not be afraid, go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee and there they will see me." Jesus Christ says, in John 11:25 and 26, "I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?" Do you believe this? Are you moved by this truth? The whole world was moved by this truth. The earth was moved, the angel was moved, the guards were moved, the women were moved, are you moved by the gospel of Jesus Christ? How do you know if you have been moved? That medicine, the medicine, you ask for it, you receive it, and it begins to take effect. It begins to cure. We know that Jesus was resurrected and we live in the already but not yet. Jesus has won and he will win. Revelation 20 verse 14, "Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire." Revelation 21:4, "He will wipe away every tear from their eyes and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying, nor pain anymore for the former things have passed away." Christ is risen. Christ is risen. And Christ is risen. Let's pray. Lord we thank you for the great news, the gospel. Thank you that you conquered Satan's sin and debt, Lord we thank you for this angel who sat on a tombstone ridiculing death, mocking death because you have conquered it. Give us strength to repent of sin, give us grace to believe in you and follow you daily. We love you, we thank you, we glorify your name, we worship you. We pray all this in the beautiful name, Jesus Christ, amen.
Easter 2019
April 21, 2019
If Jesus were to preach an Easter sermon, how would He preach it? If Jesus were trying to convince Bostonians in 2019 of the veracity of His historical and physical resurrection, what would He say? I think He would preach a sermon. That's what He did the very first Easter Sunday, when He met two skeptics on the road to Emmaus. He revealed Himself from the Holy Scriptures, by the Holy Spirit, before He revealed His Holy Self. He gave them objective truth for the mind, and then enforced it with subjective truth for the heart.