Christ died for us

Isaiah 53:5-6 New Life Version (NLV)

5 But He was hurt for our wrong-doing. He was crushed for our sins. He was punished so we would have peace. He was beaten so we would be healed. 6 All of us like sheep have gone the wrong way. Each of us has turned to his own way. And the Lord has put on Him the sin of us all.

In Matthew Henry’s Commentary, Henry wrote this, “He bore them, and blamed not his lot; he carried them, and did neither shrink from them, nor sink under them. The load was heavy and the way long, and yet he did not tire, but persevered to the end, till he said, It is finished.

Isaiah foretold the horrific death of Christ’s death.  In the final days of Christ’s life; He was beaten to a point where He was unrecognizable. He was strapped to a pole and whipped with a Cat of nine tails; similar to a whip with 9 whips leashed together and pieces of metal attached to the end of each whip to scratch and strip skin from the person.

Isaiah 50:6 tells us, “I gave my back to those who strike, and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard; I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting.”

Jesus was humiliated. Although the gospels don’t tell us specifically, we see in Isaiah 50:6 to foretelling of Christ’s beard being ripped from His face. We know a crown of thorns was fashioned to mock Him for those who did not understand His kingship. They thrust the crown on His head pushing the thorns deep into the skin.

Forced to carry a heavy a heavy wooden cross up a hill, Jesus fell from the weight. You see although He was still God, Jesus was human and was weak and in pain. Simon a Cyrenian, who was coming from the country, and on him they laid the cross that he might bear it after Jesus. This man Simon was drafted into carrying the cross for Jesus that would become the instrument of death.

They nailed Christ to the cross in a fashion that caused the person to suffocate. Already bearing much pain, Christ endured more pain for our sake.

The greatest pain was yet to come. For The Father placed upon His son, OUR SINS. Crushing sins that were overwhelming. And The Father who had been with Christ since the beginning of time turned away from Christ because of that sin and Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” which is translated, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”

Soon Jesus cried out, “It is finished.” And breathed His last.

John 3:16 tells us, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”

Christ gave His life for you, for me and all others in the world. Jesus paid the debt for our sin.

Christ suffered for us

2 Corinthians 5:21 (NLT)

21 For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.

 In these verses we see the purity of the Mediator for He had no sin. Christ was not a sinner, but was made sin that a sacrifice for sin was made. The end result is that we too could have the righteousness of God. All this was done through God’s grace and mercy to us.

 

 

No greater pain has ever been experienced on any level than the hell of Christ suffering in this moment. But why? Because he carried all of that pain, sin, guilt, and shame in that moment. Yet on a far deeper level he was forsaken and punished for us to reconcile us to God (2 Cor. 5:18).

Tim Keller illustrates it this way:

If after a service some Sunday morning one of the members of my church comes to me and says, "I never want to see you or talk to you again," I will feel pretty bad. But if today my wife comes up to me and says, "I never want to see you or talk to you again," that's a lot worse. The longer the love, the deeper the love, the greater the torment of its loss.

But this forsakenness, this loss, was between the Father and the Son, who had loved each other from all eternity. … Jesus, the Maker of the world, was being unmade. Why? Jesus was experiencing Judgment Day. "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" It wasn't a rhetorical question. And the answer is: For you, for me, for us. Jesus was forsaken by God so that we would never have to be. The judgment that should have fallen on us fell instead on Jesus.

[Stu Epperson, Last Words of Jesus (Worthy Inspired, 2015)]

 

1 Peter 3:18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit.

Jesus The Mediator

1 Timothy 2:5-6 (NLT)

5 For, There is one God and one Mediator who can reconcile God and humanity—the man Christ Jesus. 6 He gave his life to purchase freedom for everyone. This is the message God gave to the world at just the right time.

There is one Mediator, and that mediator gave himself a ransom for all. As the mercy of God extends itself to all his works, so the mediation of Christ extends itself thus far to all the children of men that he paid a price sufficient for the salvation of all mankind; he brought mankind to stand upon new terms with God, so that they are not now under the law as a covenant of works, but as a rule of life.

Why do people look at pornography? Some statistics after the 2014 Super Bowl indicate that a wound of "vulnerability" often drives the need to view porn. A mere 24 hours after the Seattle Seahawks crushed the Denver Broncos 43-8 (one of the most lopsided victories in Super Bowl history), one of the world's biggest free porn websites released data about porn site visits. In the Denver area, at the start of the game, porn use was 51 percent below national average. By the time the shellacking was complete, porn use in the Denver area was 10.8 percent above average site visits—a 60 percent swing in visiting porn websites. Figures for Seattle—where jubilant Seahawks fans were too busy doing old-fashioned things like hanging out with friends, laughing, talking, and watching action replays—were 17.1 percent below national average, post-game.

Based on these startlingly different responses to the game, British journalist Martin Daubney concluded something that most porn strugglers probably already know: "most men [and women, too] turn to porn not when they are happy, but when they are at their most vulnerable."

[Martin Daubney, "Porn users don't realize they're being watched," The Telegraph (2-5-14)]

Thankfully we have a mediator, Jesus Christ, who gave his life to purchase freedom for everyone, even those who are feeling most vulnerable.

If we confess

1 John 1:9 (NIV)

9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

Penitent confession and acknowledgment of sin are the believer's business, and the means of his deliverance from his guilt. [Matthew Henry]

NPR ran a heartbreaking interview with Robert Ebeling, an engineer who worked on the 1986 Challenger launch that resulted in the death of all seven occupants. In January 1986, Ebeling and four other engineers pleaded for the launch to be delayed; they anticipated the precise failure that would destroy the shuttle. That night, Ebeling even told his wife, Darlene, "It's going to blow up." The engineers' pleas were refused. Three weeks after the explosion, he and another engineer, since deceased, spoke to NPR. Ebeling was not identified by name until this past week. The NPR article continued:

Ebeling retired soon after Challenger. He suffered deep depression and has never been able to lift the burden of guilt. In 1986, as he watched that haunting image again on a television screen, he said, "I could have done more. I should have done more." He says the same thing today, sitting in a big easy chair in the same living room, his eyes watery and his face grave. The data he and his fellow engineers presented, and their persistent and sometimes angry arguments, weren't enough to sway Thiokol managers and NASA officials. Ebeling concludes he was inadequate. He didn't argue the data well enough. A religious man, this is something he has prayed about for the past 30 years. "I think that was one of the mistakes that God made," Ebeling says softly. "He shouldn't have picked me for the job. But next time I talk to him, I'm gonna ask him, 'Why me. You picked a loser.'"

Robert Ebeling tried to stop a disaster. He lamented over the fact his efforts were in vain. The problem was that he couldn’t forgive himself or accept the forgiveness of others. God didn’t make a mistake, God put a man in place to speak up, but others would not listen. Even Robert wasn’t listening – He was forgiven. He had spoken up, he had confessed his efforts failed.

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

The battles

Ephesians 6:10-11 (NIV)    The Armor of God

10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.

Here is a general exhortation to constancy in our Christian course, and to encourage in our Christian warfare. Is not our life a warfare? It is so; for we struggle with the common calamities of human life. Is not our religion much more a warfare? It is so; for we struggle with the opposition of the powers of darkness, and with many enemies who would keep us from God and heaven. We have enemies to fight against, a captain to fight for, a banner to fight under, and certain rules of war by which we are to govern ourselves. [Matthew Henry Commentary]

There is a war taking place across this world. For our enemy the devil takes opportunities to tempt us and to lead us where we should not go. These are deceptions to which we are often blind and fall entrapped to. There is a spiritual war that we cannot see. The war is taking place right in front of us as evil fights to overcome goodness.

So what can we do? We can be prepared. We fight not in our own power, but in the power of God. For God is able to handle any problem, personal, or worldwide. God leads the battle and God will prevail. So pray and pray earnestly.

Pray with me now: Father there is so much temptation and evil in the world. We are drawn by our own desires to follow evil, but that only leads to consequences that harm us. Lord there are battles taking place endangering the lives of people. Just this morning Lord there was terrorism that took place in Belgium. Lord we pray for the souls who were lost and the souls who were injured along with their family and friends. Father watch over us. Lead us to victory and protect us from the evil that tries to harm us. Let us turn to You oh Lord for protection, guidance and safety.

Be with those now who need You that are fighting battles of their own. Father free them from that battles that they may live life for you.

I pray these things in you majestic and honorable name. In the name of Jesus, Amen.

Trusting in The Lord

Jeremiah 17:7-8 (NIV)

7 “But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him. 8 They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.”

The duty required of us-to trust in the Lord, to do our duty to him and then depend upon him to bear us out in doing it-when creatures and second causes either deceive or threaten us, either are false to us or fierce against us, to commit ourselves to God as all-sufficient both to fill up the place of those who fail us and to protect us from those who set upon us. It is to make the Lord our hope, his favour the good we hope for and his power the strength we hope in. [Matthew Henry Commentary]

There is nothing, no circumstance, no trouble, no testing, that can ever touch me until, first of all, it has gone past God and past Christ, right through to me. If it has come that far, it has come with a great purpose, which I may not understand at the moment, but as I refuse to become panicky, as I lift up my eyes to him and accept it as coming from the throne of God for some great purpose of blessing to my own heart, no sorrow will ever disturb me, no trial will ever disarm me, no circumstance will cause me to fret, for I shall rest in the joy of what my Lord is.

[Pastor and author Alan Redpath (1907–1988)]

Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him. AMEN.

The riches of God cannot be exhausted

Psalm 23:1-3 (NIV)

1 The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.2 He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, 3 he refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake.

The Lord, The Shepherd provides for his people and they lack nothing. The shepherd guards as we lie down for rest in pleasant places. Through our rest The Lord refreshes our soul. The Lord as a shepherd lead’s us along the right paths of life all for his name’s sake.

Lake Tahoe is the eighth deepest lake in the world. On July 4, 1875, two men discovered the deepest point in the lake to be 1645 feet by lowering a weighted champagne bottle on fishing line from the side of their boat. Following the invention of sonar, soundings by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration confirmed that depth. Lake Tahoe is so large that if the lake were tipped over, its contents would cover California in 14.5 inches of water. Tahoe could provide every person in the United States with 50 gallons of water per day for five years. The evaporation from Tahoe over the course of one year could supply a city the size of Los Angeles for five years. And Lake Tahoe is a small lake compared to Lake Superior (120 times as large) and the world's largest lake, the Caspian Sea (576 times as large).

And yet there is a limit to the supply of water Lake Tahoe can provide. But The Lord has no limits. Whatever your need you can never exhaust The Lord’s Supply. Whatever your burden, you can never exhaust The Lord’s help. The riches of God cannot be exhausted.

Love and compassion

Colossians 3:12  (NIV)

12 Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.

We must not only put off anger and wrath, but we must put on compassion and kindness; not only cease to do evil, but learn to do well; not only not do hurt to any, but do what good we can to all. [Matthew Henry Commentary]

Once, while speaking on the topic of grace in Toronto, I asked the audience about their own experiences conveying grace to others. One woman shocked us all: "I feel called to minister to telephone marketers. You know, the kind who call at inconvenient hours and deliver their spiel before you can say a word." Immediately I flashed back to the times I have responded rudely or simply hung up. She continued:

All day long these sales callers hear people curse at them and slam the phone down. I listen attentively to their pitch, then I try to respond kindly, though I almost never buy what they're selling. Instead, I ask about their personal life and whether they have any concerns I can pray for. Often they ask me to pray with them over the phone, and sometimes they are in tears. They're people, after all, probably underpaid, and they're surprised when someone treats them with common courtesy.

Hearing such stories, I am aware how often I miss possible hinge moments in my own interactions with people. I marvel at the Toronto woman's gracious response and think of the times I get irritated with marketers and with employees on computer help lines who don't speak good English. I catch myself treating store cashiers and Starbucks baristas as if they were machines, not persons … Subtly or not so subtly, I let the other person know that I've been interrupted and need to get back to work. In the process, I miss golden opportunities to dispense grace.  [Philip Yancey, Vanishing Grace (Zondervan, 2014), pp. 75-76]

Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. It gives us an opportunity to minister to others as God has ministered to us.

Gentle words

Proverbs 15:1 (NIV)

1 A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.

How the peace may be kept, that we may know how in our places to keep it; it is by soft words. If wrath be risen like a threatening cloud, pregnant with storms and thunder, a soft answer will disperse it and turn it away. [Matthew Henry]

Andy Stanley, from the sermon "Let the Blames Begin", tells us:  I used to do a lot of marriage counseling, and often one spouse would come in the office and start ranting and raving, "My husband does this …;" "My wife never will do that …;" and it would go on and on. I would sit there thinking, This counseling isn't going to be very effective, because the person who apparently needs to change isn't even in the room. So I would get a pad of paper, draw a circle on it, and say, "This is a pie that represents all the chaos in your marriage. Now, 100 percent of the blame is in that pie, because that's where all the chaos is." I would give them the pen and say, "I want you to draw a slice of pie that you think represents your responsibility for the chaos." The piece of pie that that client would draw was never very big, but I would say, "Okay. So why don't you and I talk about just this. Let's talk about this piece that is your responsibility. Let's talk about your slice." You know what? My approach never worked. I could never get anybody to stay on his or her slice of the pie.

So here is what I want you to do this week: As you experience relational conflict at work, at home, with your friends—any conflict of any sort, big or small—stop and think about your own slice of the pie. Ask yourself, What is in my slice of the pie? Have I taken responsibility for my life, really, or am I enjoying the blame game so much that it has allowed me to ignore what I am ultimately responsible for?

In any relationship, if you can ever get the two parties to own their piece of the pie, you can make progress. But if everybody is focused on the other person's slice of the pie, you will just have chaos.

The only person one can change is themselves. They can try all they want, but if the other party is closed minded no change will take place. So the change you may have to make is to live with the other’s issues and find new ways to deal with them. If you keep you keep your answers gentle then the less likely you are to stir up anger.

Add to your faith and pray for others

2 Peter 1:5-8 (NIV)

5 For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6 and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7 and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. 8 For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

We should, as we have opportunity, exhort those we pray for, and excite them to the use of all proper means to obtain what we desire God to bestow upon them; and those who will make any progress in religion must be very diligent and industrious in their endeavours. Without giving all diligence, there is no gaining any ground in the work of holiness; those who are slothful in the business of religion will make nothing of it; we must strive if we will enter in at the strait gate. [Matthew Henry Commentary]

Global missions expert Paul Borthwick was invited to speak at a local church known for its hospitality to international students and its vision to adopt unreached people groups, including the Miao people from southern China. Borthwick tells what happened when he visited the church:

All over the church there were posters inviting people to "Pray for the Miao." The posters had statistics about the people group, population information, how many known Christians there are in the area, where the Miao are located and which missionaries are working with these people. Every member of the church was committed to pray for the Miao people.

As I was standing outside the banquet hall, a young man approached me and asked, "Excuse me, sir, are you from this church?" "No, I'm not from this church," I said. "This is my first time here."

"Me too," he replied. "This is my first time in any church. I am from the People's Republic of China. I heard there was food, so I came." I welcomed him to the United States and to the church, and he continued, "I need to ask another question. What is this sign?" He pointed to one of the signs that read, "Pray for the Miao."

I tried my best to explain: "Well, these people are followers of Jesus and they're trying to help other people know about the love of Jesus," I began. "So they've invited their church to pray for this ethnic minority group from south China."

"It is amazing!" he said.

"What is amazing?" I replied, a little confused.

"I am Miao!" he said earnestly. "These are my people."

"Well, this church has been praying for you," I answered. I introduced him to church leaders as the young man they had been praying for. God is at work.

[Paul Borthwick, Western Christians in Global Mission (InterVarsity Press, 2012), pp. 42-43]

Finding the door of life

1 Peter 3:15 (NLT)

15 Instead, you must worship Christ as Lord of your life. And if someone asks about your hope as a believer, always be ready to explain it.

Instead of terrifying yourselves with the fear of men, be sure to sanctify the Lord God in your hearts. [Matthew Henry]

Two stories were written in the twentieth century that share the same title: The Door in the Wall.

One of them won the Newbery Medal for children's literature. The ten-year-old son of a medieval knight become ill and crippled. He is separated from his parents by a cruel enemy army and cared for by a friar named Brother Luke. He is ashamed and disappointed by his legs—others call him "Robin Crookedshanks." He feels that his life will always be insignificant with him unable to serve and having no chance to show courage or do glorious deeds. But the friar takes him to his monastery, teaches him to read and swim and carve, and teaches him to pray for the faith that a fine and beautiful life still lies before him, "Always remember," the friar says, "thou hast only to follow the wall far enough, and there will be a door in it."

At the end of the story, it is his disability that leads to his opportunity. His crooked legs cause the enemy to under-estimate him. The resilient spirit he has grown in response to his challenges keeps him going. He alone finds the door in their fortress wall. He ends up against all odds being the rescuer who can steal unsuspected through enemy lines and save the people he loves. It is his faith in the old friar's words that keeps him going.

The other story was written by H. G. Wells, best known for his science fiction works like The War of the Worlds. In Wells' story the promise of the door in the wall is a cruel hoax. A man is haunted all his life by the memory of a door that leads to an enchanted garden that contains all he ever longed for. He searches in vain for that door his whole life. At the end of the story his dead body is found—fallen off a construction site behind a wall marked by a door that looks exactly like the one he has been seeking.

[John Ortberg, All the Places You'll Go. Except When You Don't, pgs. 231-232, Tyndale, 2015.]

Those who hope in Christ know that there is an open door at the end of history and the end of their lives. It is a door just waiting for us to walk through.

God know my life

Psalm 139:23-24 (NLT)

23 Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. 24 Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life.

The Psalmist desires that if God finds anything wrong with his heart that God would reveal it to him and place him on the correct path of life.

Richard S. Halverson, the former U.S. Senate Chaplain, used to challenge people with the following image:

You're going to meet an old man [or woman] someday down the road—ten, thirty, fifty years from now—waiting there for you. You'll be catching up with him [or her]. What kind of old man are you going to meet? He may be a seasoned, soft, gracious fellow—a gentleman who has grown old gracefully, surrounded by hosts of friends, friends who call him blessed because of what his life has meant to them. Or he may be a bitter, disillusioned, dried-up old buzzard without a good word for anyone—soured, friendless, and alone.

That old man will be you. He'll be the composite of everything you do, say, and think—today and tomorrow. His mind will he see in a mold you have made by your beliefs. His heart will be turning out what you've been putting into it. Every little thought, every deed goes into this old man.

Every day in every way you are becoming more and more like yourself. Amazing but true. You're beginning to look more like yourself, think more like yourself, and talk more like yourself. You're becoming yourself more and more. Live only in terms of what you're getting out of life and the old man gets smaller drier harder crabbier more self-centered. Open your life to others, think in terms of what you can give, your contribution to life, and the old man grows larger, softer, kindlier, and greater.

[Daniel Henderson, The Deeper Life (Bethany House Publishers, 2014), pp 165-166]

At the end of our life we find we are the sum of all the experiences we have been through. Hopefully most of us have had good lives, lives that had profited others and lead us to a gracious old life.

God's thoughts

Isaiah 55:8-9 (NLT)

8 “My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. 9 For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.

If we look up to heaven, we find God's counsels there high and transcendent, his thoughts and ways infinitely above ours. [Matthew Henry]

To illustrate how our ever-increasing need for wonder that can only be filled by God, apologist Ravi Zacharias told the following:

If I were telling my children the same fairy tale, notice the different reactions. If I took Sarah at age 8 and said to her, "Sarah, little Tommy got up and walked to the door and opened the door and a dragon jumped in front of Tommy," Sarah's eyes go wide. But now imagine me telling little Naomi, age four, the same story. "Naomi, little Tommy got up, walked to the door, and opened the door." Naomi's eyes go wide. Now let's imagine I tell a story to Nathan, aged two, whose entire worldview is exhausted in one word—cookie. All I have to say is, Nathan, little Tommy got up and walked up to the door" and Nathan's eyes get wide with amazement.

Ravi concludes, "You see the difference? Sarah needed the dragon. Naomi needed to open the door. For Nathan it was a pretty big deal to walk up to the door. The older you get the more it takes to fill your heart with wonder, and only God is big enough to fill it."   [Ravi Zacharias, "Created for Significance," Part 1 (3-7-15)]

The older we grow the more our desire for knowledge and understanding grow. We are to look up to God for answers for His ways are infinitely greater than our own.