The Work of the Cross

Alright, we are continuing our series on / / Life After the Cross: lessons to learn between easter & pentecost.

In the first week we looked at the movement from the / / law, to the fulfillment of it through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross. That we don’t do away with the law, but that we are now free to live following the Spirit of God rather than the law.

If you’re reading along with us in our Daily Bible Reading, this past week you would have been reading Romans, and in Romans 9:31-33 says, / / …the people of Israel, who tried so hard to get right with God by keeping the law, never succeeded. Why not? Because they were trying to get right with God by keeping the law instead of by trusting in him. They stumbled over the great rock in their path. God warned them of this in the Scriptures when he said, “I am placing a stone in Jerusalem that makes people stumble, a rock that makes them fall. But anyone who trust in him will never be disgraced.”

Romans 9-11 are really a beautiful, heart felt cry from Paul for the people of Israel. And what better person for that to come from then Paul himself, who was, in his own words from Philippians 3:5-6, he says, / / I was a member of the Pharisees, who demand the strictest obedience to the Jewish law. I was so zealous that I harshly persecuted the church. And as for righteousness, I obeyed the law without fault.

Who better to talk to the issue of living by the law, or living by following the Spirit of God?

In all of his law following ways, Jesus still met Paul on that road to Damascus and said, “Why are you persecuting me?” The law will not lead to life. This is why Romans 8:2 says, / / For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.

This is what Paul talks about so much in his letters. That there is a war between our own desires in the flesh, and the desires of the Spirit, or what he’s saying here in Romans 8, the law of sin and death and the law of the Spirit of life.

He says in Galatians 5:1, 16-18, / / So Christ has truly set us free. Now make sure that you stay free, and don’t get tied up again in slavery to the law… So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves. The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions. But when you are directed by the Spirit, you are not under obligation to the law of Moses.

Man, that sums it up, right?

It’s not about following a law. it’s about following the Spirit. And the Spirit is what? The Spirit of life and love.

And last week we looked at the effect of the regrets of our past getting in the way of our future. If we are going to live in all that God has for us as we move from easter to pentecost and beyond, we have to leave all that is holding us in our past, in the past, so we don’t stay in the past any longer.

It doesn’t matter what we’ve done, how we’ve lived. Even as great as denying Christ himself, Peter experiences this beautiful redemption at the breakfast fire, right? Think of that. What would we say is the ultimate sin, if there were such a thing. Denying God himself, right? Denying Jesus.

Romans 10:9-10 says, / / If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by openly declaring your faith that you are saved.

Peter kinda messed that one up, didn’t he?

Matthew 26 says that when Peter was asked if he knew Jesus he replied:

/ / “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” [Peter] said.

And again, / / “I don’t even know the man,” he said.

and then the third time, / / “A curse on me if I’m lying - I don’t know the man!”

If we heard someone say that about Jesus, we would be like, “Wow, that dude is not a Christian.”

Yet, through his conversation with Jesus by the fire redemption comes to the heart of Peter. Again, regret, even in the midst of our salvation, can hold us back. You can confess that Jesus is Lord, but live in the regrets of your former life. You have to walk away from that if you are truly going to live following Christ.

So here we are, no longer following the law of sin and death, but the Spirit who gives life, leaving behind our regrets and our past so we can truly do the good works God has called us to.

Today I want to take some time and look at what the cross and the process of the cross means for us. Because the cross is more than just salvation for those who believe. There are promises in what Jesus endured that we want to continually be reaching out for.

And before we get into today’s scripture I want to clarify this statement, / / The Finished Work of the Cross. When we say that we are not saying that the cross itself has any sort of power. What we are referring to is the finished work of Jesus Christ, who was willingly nailed to a cross.

The cross itself, as a piece of wood, has no more power than the whip they used to scourge him, or the spear used to pierce his side, or the crown of thorns forced into his head, making him bleed everywhere. These are all the very cruel tools used by those whom he allowed to torture and crucify him.

We have to remember: / / Jesus let this happen!

When the mob came to arrest him in the garden of Gethsemane, Peter grabs a sword and cuts a man’s ear off. Jesus heals him and tells Peter to put his sword away and then says this in Matthew 26:53, / / “Don’t you realize that I could ask my Father for thousands of angels to protect us, and he would send them instantly? But if I did, how would the Scriptures be fulfilled that describe what must happen now?”

But we have to look at the cross, and the symbols we use in the right way. They are powerful reminds of the truth, but not the truth themselves. In the Catholic Church you’ll see a cross with Jesus still on it, often times depicted in agony - Yes, he let it happen, but it still hurt like it would hurt us, and none of us want to go through that kind of torture. So, this became tradition to honor the supreme sacrifice that Jesus made. In other churches you’ll see an empty cross, symbolizing the resurrection - saying, yes, Jesus died, but he did not stay dead! Neither of them have power within themselves but to remind us of the work of Jesus Christ - which they are wonderful at doing.

And so we need to lay that baseline before we get into scripture this morning to use these symbols rightly to remind ourselves of the power that has always been displayed and revealed through God. Jesus was fully man, and yet, fully God. He was only crucified on that cross because he was willing to be crucified on that cross. So, when we read John 19:30 and it says, / / [Jesus] said, “It is finished!” Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. He wasn’t talking about the cross being finished, he was saying, “This is the moment where everything changes. What I am doing right now, in this moment, completes my work.”

We read Luke 18:31 in our last series, as we were talking about Jesus’ journey leading up to the cross. He says this, / / “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished.” That word accomplished is the same word that Jesus uses when he says, “It is finished!”

“Everything that was said and everything that I came to do, I have completed!”

This is the very real, very powerful, very wonderful work of Jesus Christ!

So, we’re going to look at Isaiah 53 this morning. The most amazing part about this passage of scripture, in my opinion, is that it’s written between / / 700-750 years before Jesus is hung on the cross. Isaiah is a prophet, hearing the word of God for the nation of Israel to give hope for a future. Often the prophets of Israel spoke to do two things, first, bring Israel as a nation back to the things of God. The Old Testament is a consistent story of humanities inability to follow God wholeheartedly on our own, and Israel was no exception to that. Over and over they would turn their back on God, follow other nations religions, follow their own desires, and it would get them in a world of trouble, not necessarily from God, but from their own choices. Choose to follow the god who wants child sacrifice and is full of perverse acts in their temples and what do you think will happen to a nation? So the prophets would call them back to following the way of God.

Second, to give hope. Hope of a future. Hope of God’s promise. And often, hope of the coming Messiah. This is why the New Testament says that Jesus opened up scripture to the disciples so they could see how the scriptures, which was the Old Testament, law and prophets and Psalms, spoke of him. How many times have you been reading a set of instructions, and you’re having a hard time figuring it out, someone who knows what they are doing comes along and says, “Oh, just do it like this...” shows you want it means and you go, “Ohhhhh, that’s what they meant.” Sometimes in our unknowing, in our inability to understand, we don’t see the truth until it is revealed to us, and then, at that point, it makes a whole lot of sense.

Even the NT says that the testimony of Jesus Christ and the cross is simply foolishness to those who don’t believe. But when the Holy Spirit reveals our need for a savior, then the image of that savior giving his life for us becomes life and hope to our very souls, right?

So, Isaiah is a prophet and this is what he’s been doing in his book. Give the people a good talking to for not following God, explain the way is to turn back to God, and we’ll also give some hope of a future with the promised savior of the world, the one Israel calls the Messiah.

Isaiah 53 is probably the single most quoted prophecy about the coming Messiah, and in it we see what the cross, or better said, what Christ giving his life for us on the cross, and subsequently through his resurrection, proving he is God, what all of that has accomplished.

As we read this you’ll hear, ya, this is definitely about Jesus. And we’ll read the whole chapter, it’s 12 verses, and then we’ll dig into it a bit this morning. Isaiah 53, starting in vs 1, says:

/ / Who has believed our message? To whom has the Lord revealed his powerful arm? My servant grew up in the Lord’s presence like a tender green shoot, like a root in dry ground. There was nothing beautiful or majestic about his appearance, nothing to attract us to him. He was despised and rejected - a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way. He was despised, and we did not care.

Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down. And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for his own sins! But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed. All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on him the sins of us all.

He was oppressed and treated harshly, yet he never said a word. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter. And as a sheep is silent before the shearers, he did not open his mouth. Unjustly condemned, he was led away. No one cared that he died without descendants, that his life was cut short in midstream. But he was struck down for the rebellion of my people. He had done nothing wrong and had never deceived anyone. But he was buried like a criminal; he was put in a rich man’s grave.

But it was the Lord’s good plan to crush him and cause him grief. Yet when his life is made an offering for sin, he will have many descendants. He will enjoy a long life, and the Lord’s good plan will prosper in his hands. When he sees all that is accomplished by his anguish, he will be satisfied. And because of his experience, my righteous servant will make it possible for many to be counted righteous, for he will bear all their sins. I will give him the honors of a victorious soldier, because he exposed himself to death. He was counted among the rebels. He bore the sins of many and interceded for rebels.

Wow, can you see how this is about Jesus?

I mean, more than 700 years before it happens and this is just spot on to what Jesus goes through from point of betrayal to dying on the cross.

So, this is kind of split into four sections.

/ / Section 1 (vs 1-3) - the rejection of Jesus by the people of God, or really, by humanity as a whole. …HE was despised and rejected... WE turned our backs on him...

/ / Section 2 (vs 4-6) is the turn around. Even though we rejected him, even though we turn our backs on him, he did this for us - and this explains what he goes through to see something different for our lives. And this will be our focus for this morning, these 3 verses specifically. Summed up in the last verse of that section …the Lord laid on him the sins of us all.

/ / Section 3 (vs 7-9) - this section defines that not only did he endure suffering for our sake but he will die. This is leading to his death, and burial. But he was buried like a criminal; he was put in a rich man’s grave.

/ / Section 4 (vs 10-12) - points to this as a yet to come, not a has already happened, even though, to this point each section has talked like it’s already happened. Yet when his life is made an offering for sin, he will have many descendants.

And this is interesting, Revelation 13:8 says, / / And all the people who belong to this world worshiped the beast. They are the ones whose names were not written in the Book of Life that belongs to the Lamb who was slaughtered before the world was made.

There’s a definite / / has happened, is happening and is yet to happen feeling when it comes to Jesus Christ and the cross. But listen to the way it says things in the first three sections...

/ / Who has believed our message?

/ / My servant grew...

/ / There “was” nothing beautiful or majestic about his appearance...

/ / He WAS despised and rejected…we DID NOT care.

/ / ..it was our weakness he carried;

/ / …he WAS pierced, was crushed, was beaten, was whipped…

/ / ...WAS oppressed and treated harshly, yet he never SAID a word.

This is all past tense language...

Then we get to vs 10-12...

/ / Yet when his life IS MADE an offering for sin, he WILL HAVE many descendants.

/ / He WILL enjoy a long life, and the Lord’s good plan WILL prosper in his hands.

/ / When he sees all that is accomplished… he WILL be satisfied.

/ / …[he] WILL make it possible for many to be counted righteous, for he WILL bear all their sins.

/ / I will give him honors...

All Future Tense Language here, right?

So, Isaiah is talking about this in a way that it’s already happened, and yet, it is to come. And AFTER talking about his death in vs 9 he talks about him being honored in vs 10-12. Like he knows a resurrection is coming!

The ESV says vs 12 like this, / / …because he poured out his soul to death and WAS numbered with the transgressors; yet he BORE the sin of many - all past tense language, but ends with - / / and MAKES intercession for the transgressors.

Numbered with us, bore our sin, our suffering, our death, will be honored, but also, now today makes intercession for us!

It’s just absolutely beautiful.

But I want to focus here on the second section, vs 4-6 because part of this journey from easter to pentecost is understanding what Jesus did on the cross.

There’s one thing to have Jesus in the flesh operating in the anointing of the Holy Spirit and his divinity as God right there in front of you, and you’re watching people get healed and set free from demons and you’re learning from him as a disciple, and then being told to go do the same without him around....sorry, what? How? What do you mean?

One of the things we identified last week is that we believe in the finished work of the cross, right? But, what does that mean?

Just like there’s this weird kind of shifting of time in Isaiah 53, we see the finality of certain things. Things that Jesus did, but like Isaiah 53 we can say, he has done, is doing and will do!

So, what has the finished work of the cross done? Let’s look at a few of the verses in Isaiah 53.

/ / 1. Yet it was our weaknesses he carried...

Isaiah 53:4, Yet it was our weaknesses he carried...

2 Corinthians 12 is a masterclass in this thought. I don’t have time to get into the whole thing, but Paul is talking through his own desire to boast about his accomplishments, but he knows he shouldn’t, and so he says in 2 Corinthians 12:7-10, So to keep me from becoming proud, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger from Satan to torment me and keep me from becoming proud. Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away. Each time he said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weakness, so that the power of Christ can work through me. That’s why I take pleasure in my weaknesses, and in the insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles that I suffer for Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Through the finished work on the cross, we have the grace of Jesus Christ available to us to endure through suffering, through weakness. And notice this is not necessarily something God always takes away, but something that we experience through Christ as we come to grips with our own humanity and need for Him. When I am weak, then I am strong. The weakness didn’t go away, I am simply experiencing the power of Christ’s strength in my humanity, in my weakness. That becomes a very beautiful thing. He carries us in our weakness because He is strong enough to do so.

But here’s the part that we play in this. We must be willing to experience and embrace our weakness, so that in our weakness, Christ can reveal to us and we can experience His strength. Not make us strong so we don’t need him, but in him we experience His strength even in the midst of our weakness.

/ / 2. it was our sorrows that weighed him down.

This is important for two reasons:

First, / / Jesus felt our sorrow leading up to and on the cross. That is important. One of the things I have come to realize more as I grow in my understanding of Jesus and the cross, is that Jesus chose to reach into the humanity he created, and experience what we experience, and as we saw last week, as Hebrews says, God gave him a body to lay down into that grave to defeat sin and death. But in all of that Jesus had the fullness of the human experience. And there’s something about a God who is willing to suffer as we suffer, to feel as we feel, to cry as we cry, weep as we weep, feel betrayed and hurt like we are. Remember last week, Luke wrote that when the rooster crowed Jesus looked at Peter and their gaze locked on each other, even if just for a moment. Deep betrayal. Deep hurt. Deep suffering and sorrow. And the weight of all that sorrow was placed on him on the cross.

So, first, Jesus felt our sorrow, and second, / / Jesus carried our sorrow. It was placed on him. He knows what you feel so he can walk with you. Footprints in the sand, if you know that poem, a man has a dream and in the dream he’s walking with the Lord, and he sees on this beach there were times in his life where there was only one set of footprints, he asks the Lord, “Why did you leave me.” And Jesus replies, “I would never leave you. During your times of trial and suffering, when you see only one set of footprints, it was then that I carried you.”

If you are going through hard times, if you are feeling the weight of sorrow, allow Him to carry that. Matthew 11:28, Jesus says, / / “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest...”

/ / Feeling is necessary for healing.

If you are unwilling to recognize or acknowledge that you are dealing with sorrow, you will be unable to release it to Jesus to carry for you.

Be willing to feel. Be willing to let go. Be willing to allow Him to carry your burdens.

/ / 3. He was pierced for our rebellion,

A lot of translations say, …he was pierced for our transgressions. That can mean rebellion, sin, a revolt, so a push back of a moral or religious way.

Now we’re getting into the sin of things, right? Romans 6:23, / / the wages of sin is death.

Humanity revolted against God. We pushed back on his way of morality and righteousness. We pushed back on following him to do our own thing. Isaiah expands on this a bit in vs 6 / / All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own...

So let’s call / / rebellion out for what it really is. Our desire to do our own thing regardless of what those in authority, or those who know better than us might say. It’s an unwillingness to recognize that someone else might know better. We become unwilling to heed advice.

Humanity at it’s finest, right? We read about what Paul thinks on that. Our flesh is warring against the spirit. Galatians 5:17, / / The sinful nature wants to do evil… the Spirit gives us desires that are opposite… These two forces are constantly fighting each other...

But that rebellion, that human nature, that human desire to revolt and do our own thing, was the very thing that pierced the body of Jesus… So, when we read John 19:34 and the moment that this actually happens, / / One of the soldiers, however, pierced his side with a spear, and immediately blood and water flowed out.

I’m not going to draw any conclusions here or anything, except to say, at this point, Jesus is already dead, and they pierce his side to confirm that he is dead, and so I would simply say this, / / the rebellion that pierced his side shows that our rebellion is already dealt with.

We all struggle with our own desires, desire to do what is wrong, desire to do what we think is better for us. And we have to continually lay down our own desire for the desire of Christ. He took my rebellion. He can handle it. Jesus can handle the fact that you want to do your own thing, and wants to walk with you and help you make the right choice.

I think one of the greatest thing we could understand is that this is taken care of. Even if we are still struggling with it, even when we fall back into old habits, old ways, reminding ourselves, Jesus was pierced for our rebellion, and it revealed that it was taken care of!

/ / 4. He was crushed for our sins.

ESV says ...he was crushed for our iniquities… that word means perversity, evil in the sense of morality, to be depraved. All the worst of humanity. If you read Romans 1 where it talks about some of the worst of humanity when we turn our backs on God, yet, even in that, Jesus took this to the cross. Where our moral bankruptcy should bring punishment for us, Jesus was crushed for it.

Again, this is the finished work of the cross. Jesus has done this. He was crushed, past tense. For all the ways I am evil. For all the ways I am depraved, perverse, in my humanity, he took all of that upon himself, and was crushed by it, and took it to the grave to bury it forever.

/ / 5 / 6. He was beaten so we could be whole, he was whipped so we could be healed.

Now, this is two things, here, but I’m going to do them together and you’ll see why in a moment. But beaten so we could be whole, the ESV says this is what brings us peace, or shalom in the Hebrew, which is health and prosperity in body, soul and spirit.

This is you being made whole. Of sound mind and body.

And then the second statement, he was whipped so we could be healed. You may know a common wording of this, By his stripes we are healed. Or by His wounds we are healed. This is a different word and it means to mend, to cure, to heal and repair the body. So this is the miracle of healing made possible by the scourging of Jesus’ body.

Now, when you read about the torture that Jesus went through, I hesitate to even read it only because of it’s graphic nature, but I want you to see the extent Jesus went through to make us whole and to bring us healing. What He goes through is the very opposite of shalom and mending, it is literally being dismantled.

Dr. Truman C. Davis wrote a medical explanation of what Jesus endured. He realized, probably like most of us, that when we think about the crucifixion of Jesus we don’t really think of the gory details and the extent of the brutality of it all. How often do we simply just skim over the text? This was why when the Passion of the Christ came out in 2004 it was such a shock to so many because even in its graphic nature, and for that it earned itself an R rating, it still did not come to the full extent of what Jesus went through.

Dr. Davis explains that Jesus was hit in the face, blind-folded, soldiers spitting on him and hitting him, and that’s before the real torture begins. So, he’s already bruised and battered. Then he writes: “Preparations for the scourging [which is the whipping] were carried out when the Prisoner was stripped of His clothing and His hands tied to a post above His head.... [The whip] consisted of several heavy, leather thongs with two small balls of lead attached near the ends of each. The heavy whip is brought down with full force again and again across Jesus’ shoulders, back, and legs.

At first the thongs cut through the skin only. Then, as the blows continue, they cut deeper into the subcutaneous tissues, producing first an oozing of blood from the capillaries and veins of the skin, and finally spurting arterial bleeding from vessels in the underlying muscles. The small balls of lead first produce large, deep bruises which are broken open by subsequent blows. Finally the skin of the back is hanging in long ribbons and the entire area is an unrecognizable mass of torn, bleeding tissue. When it is determined by the centurion in charge that the prisoner is near death, the beating is finally stopped. The half-fainting Jesus is then untied and allowed to slump to the stone pavement, wet with His own blood.”

So, here’s what I want you to hear in regard to Isaiah 53 when it says he was beaten so we could be whole, he was whipped so we could be healed.

/ / Jesus was literally torn apart, so we could be put back together.

And Jesus, while he’s alive is out healing everyone, but this scripture gives us hope of healing beyond Jesus walking on the earth. Jesus said he had to go away so that the Holy Spirit would come. The power of God that works in us and through us.

There’s a story in the Old Testament when Israel is in the wilderness. It’s in Numbers 21, poisonous snakes overtake the camp of Israel, and people were being bitten and dying. So Moses prays and God tells him, / / “Make a replica of a poisonous snake and attach it to a pole. All who are bitten will live if they simply look at it!” (Numbers 21:8)

Jesus says in John 3:14-15, / / “And as Moses lifted up the bronze snake on a pole in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him will have eternal life.”

This moment that Jesus endures is prophecy fulfilled!

/ / 7. laid on him was the sins of us all...

In what could only be seen as the ultimate cruelty, after that severe beating, they tell him he now has to carry his own cross… the instrument of his death…

Now, I’ve covered this a lot, but again, Hebrews 10:5, / / That is why, when Christ came into the world, he said to God, “You did not want animal sacrifices or sin offerings. But you have given me a body to offer.”

On that body of flesh all of the sin, iniquity, rebellion, transgression, all that we have done wrong, and have not done right, was laid on Jesus, and where once the wages of sin was our death, he took that death on HIS body and Romans 6:23 finishes with, / / but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.

This is what Christ has done on the cross:

He gives us His strength in our weakness...

He acquaints himself so deeply with our suffering and sorrow so he can walk with us in ours.

He deals with our rebellion, our desire to do our own thing.

He was beaten and whipped so we could be healed and made whole.

And sin and the grave are forever conquered through His life, death and resurrection!

Now, I want to touch on something quickly here, and I’ll close with this thought. I don’t ever want you to be disillusioned or disheartened not understanding and questioning why...

We know that not everyone is healed. We know that not every situation seems to get better. We know that hard times last longer than we want sometimes. All of that may be true. And we might not have an answer as to why God has not intervened, or allowed it to happen, or whatever other reason these things happen. Sometimes bad things happen to good people, and we don’t seem to see a reason why. Sometimes it’s painfully obvious why we go through hard times. We do things that bring on hardship. Other times it’s other people who create or effect our lives in negative ways. And sometimes it seems completely unexplainable. Whether we experience or do not experience a miracle in our lives, the challenge I always put before myself, and I put before you today is to / / always believe that God can do miracles, God is always good, and God is always faithful.

Put that first and foremost in your mind before anything, so that when doubt or question come, you have an answer. Your current situation doesn’t determine God’s faithfulness...

Let’s look at the story of Lazarus for a moment. We have looked at it a few times in the last few weeks leading up to and after Easter. John 11 tells us the story. It says that Mary and Martha, Lazarus’ sisters, sent a message to Jesus through someone else to let him know that, and this is how it’s written, / / “Lord, your dear friend is very sick.”

Your dear friend.

And Jesus responds in John 11:4, / / “Lazarus’ sickness will not end in death. No, it happened for the glory of God so that the Son of God will receive glory from this.”

But, if you know the story, you know that this is only half true. Lazarus’s story doesn’t END in death, but death is very much involved. Jesus stays where he is for another two days, then decides to head out to see his “dear friend”, and by the time he gets there Lazarus has been dead for 4 days.

Now, we love the story because it doesn’t END in death, right? Jesus was correct. But, ask Lazarus if he enjoyed what he went through… Ask Lazarus if being sick enough to lose your life was something he wanted to go through… As him if he enjoyed dying... All while wondering why on earth your dear friend Jesus isn’t coming to your rescue.

Talk about someone feeling abandoned. I wonder if him and Jesus had that talk after he was raised from the dead. “Jesus, you let me die....why?” “It makes a good story. Me and the Father are getting worshiped for this..” “I’m sorry, what?”And sure, maybe that’s the abandoned, rejected, hurt and suffering to the point of death talking here....but he’s not wrong.

Now, ask Lazarus if he enjoyed being pulled back from the afterlife 4 days into it… Whatever your theology is on that, or whatever the situation was at the time, pre-cross, pre-resurrection of Jesus. Is he in in what Jesus refers to in a parable as Abraham’s bosom, is he in what the Catholics call purgatory, is he in heaven with the angels? Was he somewhere he wanted to be? Maybe even wanted to stay, and then he’s pulled back?

I say all of that to give us the opportunity to address suffering, pain, sickness, death, a bit differently. I don’t know why certain things happen. We have stories in our own community of sickness, cancer, heart disease, surgery, heartache, divorce, abuse, loss, death… And it breaks my heart to hear stories of suffering.

But in all of these scenarios my encouragement to myself, and my encouragement to you is that in the process:

/ / 1. Don’t lose hope

2. Always pursue grace.

Hope is the assurance of the resurrection, even if what we go through leads to death. Jesus says in John 11:25, / / “I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying.”

What we are going through might not get better. It might land us in complete ruin. And we may not know why. But the promise, the eternal promise, which is way more important than the temporary gratification of a good life, the eternal promise is resurrection life in Jesus Christ.

Paul says in Romans 8:18, / / Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will reveal to us later.

So don’t lose faith, hope and trust in the power of Jesus, because if his promise is eternal life forever, then in your body now, he can still do a miracle. So don’t lose hope for the now, but don’t let what doesn’t happen now rob you from your hope in the what is yet to come!

And always pursue grace. The grace to endure through any scenario. Paul said that God’s response to him was, / / My grace is sufficient for you, my power is made perfect in weakness.

And so in the midst of question, and difficulty:

I will pray for miracles, because I believe they happen because I’ve seen them happen.

I will pray for healing, because I believe God still heals today, because I’ve seen it happen.

I will pray for financial breakthrough, because God still cares for his people, because I’ve seen it happen.

I will pray for relationships to be restored, because God’s power is as much available and active today as it ever has been and I’ve seen it happen.

So, this is the finished work of the cross. There is no more to be said about it. We are not waiting for Jesus to do anything else here. He has done it. Have we experienced it yet, maybe not, but that does not mean it hasn’t been paid for. So continue to believe, continue to pray, continue to pursue Jesus the healer, the deliver, the one who makes us whole, makes us clean and makes us right with God, and the one who gives us eternal life!

If there is anything in your life that you need a touch from God in your life today, I want you to identify this morning, “I believe” by standing to your feet, and we’re going to pray this morning.