Alpha-Why did Jesus Die?

The Symbol of Christianity

Most teams have logos? Everyone knows what this means?

It is center piece of the New Testament, visually when we see it, we should istantly be drawn to something

What is in a Logo?

Maybe you have a tatto, it symbolizes and means something for some reason it communicates something about you, what you represent.

Nike

Packers

Vikings

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When we see a Logo our minds automatically begin associating.

In Christianity we have a Logo? We have a symbol The Cross!

The cross symbolizes and communicates Love, acceptance, value worth, this Love is uncontditional, and It is amazing. When you grasp that not as a truth, but your truth.

Yet we have this capactiy to love that way too. and also we have this sad ability to evil too. We dont have to look far that what I saw in the news paper about what a local school boards view of Gender. We want to protect our children and love them thorugh in a truthful and compassionate manner, not to devalue, but lovingly embrace truth.

Therefore we need

Romans 3:23 NLT

23 For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.

Sin is not a funny thing, its not a weakness, but a natural inclination to hurt others, break a vow or comitment you have made. We all have made mistakes and there are consequencs of our sin.

The Problem-is Sin

The problem of Sin is something we are all born into, we cant avoid it. it is like a disease we all are Born into.

Sin is not a funny thing, its not a weakness, but a natural inclination to hurt others, break a vow or comitment you have made. We all have made mistakes and there are consequencs of our sin.

It is possible to polute, sin polutes our relationships with people and with God. Many of us Make excuses, and play victem, we play

An insurance Adjuster was amused by seeing things written on their accident clamin forms and they are trying to explain to the company why they had the indicdent.

One man wrote this: ‘Going home, I drove into the wrong house and collided with a tree that wasn’t there.’ Another man wrote this: ‘The other car collided with mine without giving warning of his intention.’

Another person wrote this: ‘The guy was all over the road. I had to swerve a number of times before I hit him.’

Someone else wrote this: ‘I’d been driving my car for forty years when I fell asleep at the wheel and had an accident.’

Someone else wrote: ‘The pedestrian had no idea which way to go, so I ran over him.’

And finally this: ‘I pulled away from the side of the road, glanced at my mother-in-law, and headed over the embankment.’

We have to be honest, we all have made mistakes and sinned, ingnorantly or even will fully.

If you were to take the best person possible, you know.....Maybe Mother Theresa at the top of the standard, and at the bottom, Adolf Hitler?

We all would say we are probably somewhere in between, maybe the standard is the ceiling.....or maybe it is the Sky

John Collins was the vicar at Holy Trinity Brompton, the home of Alpha in London, from 1980–1985. He’s now ninety years of age. He’s a very a very gracious, loving, kind, humble man.

So John would use this illustration. He’d say: ‘Supposing there’s a scale here on this pillar of all the people who’ve ever lived. Who would you put at the top?’ And they’d say, ‘Well, maybe Mother Teresa’ or their mother would go at the top. And he’d say, ‘Well, who would you put at the bottom?’ And they’d say, ‘Well, maybe Adolf Hitler’ or their boss would go at the bottom. And then John would say, ‘Well, I think you’d agree we’re all of us somewhere between there and there.’ And John being a very humble man, he’d say: ‘I’m probably somewhere down there, and you’re probably somewhere up there,’ and the guy would nod and say, ‘Yeah, that’s probably the case.’

And then John would say: ‘Well, what do you think the standard is?’ And the guy would say: ‘Well, maybe the standard’s the ceiling.’ And John would say: ‘No, look at the verse. The standard’s not the ceiling – it’s the sky. ‘All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.’”

Sin is Powerful, 4 P’s - Pollution, Power, Penalty, Partition

Pollution-Sin is a pollution, things that happen to us, things we do pollute our life. It is real, it is a problem, we might not be able to fully grasp it, but pollution is there, you may at times almost smell it ore sense it, but It is there.

Power of sin-The bad stuff in our lives, the things we do over and recognize that we have created a habit that is bad, it can be finances, sexual addiction, to people pleasing, Who ever sins is a slave to Sin.

John 8:34 NLT

34 Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave of sin.

What is it to be a slave to sin, Image you wanted to eat some donuts, and ate like 4-5, and an hour later you are feeling ill, and then you recognize the only way you can feel better is to have a few more donuts....

Looking at it from the outside it is obvious.....but to an adict? It is not that easy

3) The Penalty of Sin- We all at times have a sense of injustice that rises up with in us. We hear about a child being molested, someone who beat We want to right the wrongs, we want to set things right.

Yet often times we ourselves don’t have the compassion for the person committing sin.

Story, we see a co worker get a promotion that we feel like we should have gotten, and the only reason that they got it was because of a friend they knew. An family member who they knew. I know I have felt like that at times. You see that person does not have the capability to do what is asked of them. We all experience injustices at some level all of us, then inside we secretly want them to fail. We them not to do good. Why? If we to google Hypocrite our face would show up?

John Collins was the vicar at Holy Trinity Brompton, the home of Alpha in London, from 1980–1985. He’s now ninety years of age. He’s a very a very gracious, loving, kind, humble man.

So John would use this illustration. He’d say: ‘Supposing there’s a scale here on this pillar of all the people who’ve ever lived. Who would you put at the top?’ And they’d say, ‘Well, maybe Mother Teresa’ or their mother would go at the top. And he’d say, ‘Well, who would you put at the bottom?’ And they’d say, ‘Well, maybe Adolf Hitler’ or their boss would go at the bottom. And then John would say, ‘Well, I think you’d agree we’re all of us somewhere between there and there.’ And John being a very humble man, he’d say: ‘I’m probably somewhere down there, and you’re probably somewhere up there,’ and the guy would nod and say, ‘Yeah, that’s probably the case.’

And then John would say: ‘Well, what do you think the standard is?’ And the guy would say: ‘Well, maybe the standard’s the ceiling.’ And John would say: ‘No, look at the verse. The standard’s not the ceiling – it’s the sky. ‘All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.’”

Romans 2:1 NLT

1 You may think you can condemn such people, but you are just as bad, and you have no excuse! When you say they are wicked and should be punished, you are condemning yourself, for you who judge others do these very same things.

4) The Partition of Sin-You all know this....you end up going around someone who should be connecting with. All married people have experineced this, or close relationships, that avoidance or awkwardness. If that is there, you need to work that out, even we can avoid God in that. I even recognized some discouragment in my heart.

God wants to break down the partion between himself and others.

1 Peter 2:24 (NLT)

24 He personally carried our sins

in his body on the cross

so that we can be dead to sin

and live for what is right.

By his wounds

you are healed.

The Self Substitution of God.

In July 1941, a prisoner escaped from Auschwitz, and as a reprisal the Gestapo selected ten men arbitrarily to die in a starvation bunker. And one of the men selected, his name was Francis Gajowniczek. And when he was selected, he cried out. He said, ‘Oh,’ he said, ‘my poor wife and my children – they’ll never see me again!’ And at that moment a little guy, a Polish man in glasses, wire frames, stepped out of line, he took off his cap, and he said: ‘Look, I’m a Catholic priest, so I don’t have a wife or children.’ He said, ‘I would like to die instead of that man.’

To everyone’s amazement, his offer was accepted, and he was taken to the starvation bunker. And on 14 August he was the last one to die. He kept up an amazing atmosphere, apparently. He got them singing hymns and praying. But on 14 August they needed the bunker for other people, and they gave him a lethal injection of carbolic acid, and that’s how he died.

Forty-one years later, his death was put in its proper perspective. There, in a crowd of 150,000 people, 26 cardinals, 300 archbishops and bishops, St Peter’s Square, Rome, in that crowd was Francis Gajowniczek. And the Pope said on that occasion about his death: ‘The death of Maximilian Kolbe’ – that Polish forty-seven-year-old priest who stepped forward to give his life – ‘that was a victory like the one won by our Lord Jesus Christ’: because he gave himself – he gave up his life out of love.

Francis Gajowniczek died at the age of ninety-three: he’d spent the rest of his life going round telling everybody about the love of this man who died in his place.

And in an even more amazing and wonderful way, Jesus died in your place, in my place. The Son of God loved me and gave himself for me.

New Living Translation (Chapter 53)

6 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.

God has transfered the sins we all have comitted to Jesus. This image is used, becaue when the priests were required in the OT to put their hands on the sheep before they could go into the Holy of Holies.

The cross; the results of the cross. The cross and resurrection are really like one event. And it’s like a beautiful diamond: you could look at it from so many different facets, all the different things that the death of Jesus achieved. God revealed how much he loves you. Guilt is feeling bad about the stuff we do.

Shame is feeling bad about who we are. And Jesus bore our guilt and our shame.

And you never need to feel bad about yourself in that sense, because you are loved. Your worth is what you’re worth to God. What are you worth to God? Jesus died for you! You are so infinitely valuable to God. And then Jesus revealed what true love is. True love is not just a feeling. Love involves more than words; it involves actions. And Jesus showed us the supreme example of love, by sacrificing himself for you and for me.

I Corinthians 5:19 NLT For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation.

Tyndale House Publishers, Holy Bible: New Living Translation (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2015), 2 Co 5:19.

And reconciliation with God leads to reconciliation in marriage, in relationships, between parents and children, in friendships. And then the penalty has been paid. The guilt has been removed. There’s no condemnation. The word that’s used is ‘justified’. ‘Justified’ means ‘just-as-if-I’d never sinned’. It’s a term from the law court: if you were justified, you were acquitted. John 8:34-36

John 8:34–36 NLT

34 Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave of sin. 35 A slave is not a permanent member of the family, but a son is part of the family forever. 36 So if the Son sets you free, you are truly free.

I John 1:9

1 John 1:9 NLT

9 But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.

Justification. To use two theological words, justification happens instantly: you are put right with God, you’re made righteous. There’s no condemnation, no guilt.

Sanctification, which is becoming like Jesus, that’s a lifelong process.

And then the pollution has been removed. There is continual forgiveness. John writes that ‘the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin’. This is so amazing, this is so wonderful. Forgiveness. And when we’ve experienced God’s forgiveness – this is what I found: it made such a difference to my life. Because when you are forgiven, you want to forgive.

Before I was a Christian, if someone offended me, I would hold a grudge against that person. But holding a grudge is like letting the other person live rent-free in your head! It doesn’t do them any harm. And if someone offended me, I want to get back at them by not forgiving them. But unforgiveness doesn’t hurt them; it hurts me, us! Someone said, ‘Unforgiveness is like drinking poison and hoping the other person’s going to die.’

And when we’ve experienced God’s forgiveness, we want to forgive. And the hardest thing is to forgive ourselves. That’s what I find the hardest. It’s much easier for me to forgive other people than to forgive myself.

if God’s forgiven us and we refuse to forgive ourselves, it’s like ‘setting ourselves up as a higher tribunal than God’!- C. S. Lewis

Corrie ten Boom was an amazing Dutch Christian who during the War hid Jews from the Nazis. And she was caught and arrested, as was her father and her sister, and they were taken to concentration camps. Her father died, and her sister Betsie, who went with her to Ravensbrück, died also in that concentration camp. But amazingly Corrie survived. And after the War she went round just talking about forgiveness, this message of forgiveness.

One time in 1947 she was in a church in Munich. And when she finished her talk, this man came up to her, and she recognised him as one of the guards in Ravensbrück concentration camp. He didn’t recognise her, but she recognised him, and she could remember his cruelty. And he came up to her and he said, ‘Thank you for your message, wonderful message about forgiveness. I have become a Christian, and I know that God has forgiven me. I want to know that you forgive me.’ And he stuck out his hand and said, ‘Shake my hand as a sign that you’ve forgiven me.’ And Corrie said she just – all the memories of her sister dying, his cruelty, came back into her head. She wrote this:

‘I stood there and I could not. Betsie had died in that place. Could he erase her slow, terrible death simply for the asking?

It could not have been many seconds that he stood there, hand held out, but to me it seemed hours as I wrestled with the most difficult thing I’d ever had to do. I stood there with the coldness clutching my heart. But forgiveness is not an emotion – I knew that too. Forgiveness is an act of the will, and the will can function regardless of the temperature of the heart. “Jesus, help me,” I prayed silently. “I can lift my hand – I can do that much. You supply the feeling.”’

‘And so, woodenly, mechanically, I thrust my hand into the one stretched out to me. And as I did, an incredible thing took place. The current started in my shoulder, raced down my arm, sprang into our joined hands, and then this healing warmth seemed to flood my whole being, bringing tears to my eyes. “I forgive you, brother,” I cried, “with all my heart.” For a long moment we grasped each other’s hands, the former guard and the former prisoner. I have never known God’s love so intensely as I did then.’

Forgive Yourself, and forgive others, there is nothing more Godly than this. God wants us to have unhindered, unbroken fellowship and connection.

----Pause for a moment, is anyone coming to your mind that you need to forgive? A situation that you recognize you are stuggling to move beyond because you beat yourself up over and over and condem yourself.