Instead of Me
March 15 - April 5
Punished for Me
April 5, 2020 • Gregg Parris
Matthew 27:27-56 I. The suffering criminals, who rage against God. “The God of the gospel is the only God that doesn’t simply offer platitudes and perspective about pain, or say merely, ‘Here is an explanation for your pain.’ He’s a God that came down and shared in the forsakenness that we feel in a universe gone wrong. He’s the only God that did that.” Michael Green II. Creation itself, quaking under the weight of glory displayed. III. The outsiders, who recognize He is doing this for them. IV. Simon of Cyrene, who helps carry the cross. “It wouldn’t matter if Jesus died 1000 times if no one ever heard about it!” Martin Luther
Accused for Me
March 29, 2020 • Gregg Parris
Matthew 26:57-67; 27:1-26 I. The threatened. II. The distracted. Trifle not with Christ, whose hands and feet were nailed to the accursed tree for sinners such as you. Trifle not with his precious blood, for that is your only hope of redemption. Trifle not with the Holy Spirit, for if he should leave you to perish, your case would be hopeless. Trifle not with the gospel; what would the lost in hell not give to hear another proclamation of mercy! The devil does not trifle; he is very earnestly seeking your destruction. God and Christ and the Holy Spirit are not trifling with you, and (I am) not trifling with you either. Charles Spurgeon It was not unbelief that sent Pilate to hell; it was indifference. III. The guilty. IV. The despairing (or unbelieving).
Taken for Me
March 22, 2020 • Gregg Parris
Matthew 26:30–56 I. We are confronted by what Jesus did. In Gethsemane, Jesus looked full into the cup of God’s wrath, and it overwhelmed him so badly that it almost killed him. I stand amazed in the presence, of Jesus the Nazarene. And I wonder how he could love me—a sinner condemned unclean! For me it was in the Garden, he prayed not my will but thine. He had no tears for his own griefs, but sweat drops of blood for mine! He took my sin and my sorrow, and made them his very own—he bore my burden to Calvary, and suffered and died alone! II. We are invited to respond. The church—the true church—is built not through the power of the sword but the power of the cross. True salvation is not something we can achieve, but something we must receive.
Betrayed for Me
March 15, 2020 • Gregg Parris
Matthew 26: 6-16 I. What’s your price? For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. Ephesians 2:8-9 We’re not saved because of how committed we were to Jesus, but because of how committed he was to us. II. Why did Judas betray Jesus?