Winter Retreat: The Work of Christ
Winter Retreat • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Last night we talked about what Jesus is. He is the creator of the universe. He existed with God in the beginning and has been God since the beginning. He is the Light of the world and the hope of mankind who was born in human flesh. He is the perfect representation of the Father and is the Word of God. Jesus is holy and divine and beyond human understanding. He is God.
This morning we are going to look at Jesus’ time on earth, how He served and cared for people, and what His death and resurrection mean for us going forward.
The Gospel leads us to humility
There is nothing we can do to earn our salvation. It is a free gift given to us. Jesus’ example of humility quite simply humbles us. The weight of our sin and our helplessness cause us to fall at the foot of the cross. There is no hope for us other than Jesus. We are dead in our sin but rather than be far off and deal with us cruelly, Jesus humbled Himself and took our place.
In Philippians 2 Paul helps us capture a glimpse of the power of the Gospel. The almighty God, designer and sustainer of all creation, the one through whom all things were created by and for, this holy and lofty author of life lays aside His glory and is born into frail humanity. He is fully God and fully man. He is tempted and tried in every way like us but He lives a sinless life (something no other human being had ever done before), He was executed by His own creation (buried in a tomb for three days), and rose again on the third day. To Jesus belongs the name that is above every other name. The name Jesus means “Yahweh saves”. Yahweh is the name of God given to Moses in Exodus. God alone saves and He offers salvation for mankind through one person alone and that is Jesus Christ. He is the chosen way of salvation. He alone makes the way for us to have a relationship with God. He is the way, the truth, and the life. Nobody gets to the Father except through Jesus. If salvation were available by any other means Jesus’ name wouldn’t be as worthy of honor. But it is through Jesus alone that we can be saved.
Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Paul points out the humility of Jesus. He didn’t have to do what He did. He didn’t have to empty Himself and be beaten and abused. He was God. He never felt pain or weakness. Yet Jesus became a man of sorrows who was acquainted with our grief. The author of life tasted death for us. In fact all of Jesus’ ministry is marked by His humility. In those final hours before His arrest Jesus ate dinner one last time with His disciples. Before they ate Jesus took off His garment, tied it around His waste, and washed His disciples’ feet. Jesus didn’t come to be served but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for all who would call on Him. In that moment with His disciples Jesus teaches us something about who He is. Jesus is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, but He doesn’t use His authority to crush us, but He is patient with us, dealing with us in grace and love.
This is the mystery that made Jesus so confusing to the people around Him. While Israel looked for a conquering king ready to overthrow Rome and restore Israel to glory Jesus came ready to conquer sin and death for all people.
What qualifies Jesus to pay for our salvation?
He is the fulfillment of the Old Covenant
All of the prophets and all of the stories told in the Old Testament point to Jesus being the messiah. Jesus fulfilled over 300 prophecies during His time on earth. These prophecies were made by several different people over a period of 1500 years and yet Jesus fulfills every single one of them. When you look at the narrative of Scripture, both the Old and New Testament, point to Jesus as the main character.
He is the Heel who crushes Satan’s head
And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel.”
Jesus born to a virgin by the Holy Spirit through the line of Eve not Adam
Something very important to understand about the incarnation is that Joseph was not the father of Jesus. The birth of Jesus was a miracle. Mary was a virgin yet she conceived and gave birth to a son. Because of this Jesus does not have a sinful nature like you and I have. Jesus was born in human flesh but He is still fully God: holy and without sin.
Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned—
Through Adam sin entered into the world but through Jesus redemption is offered up to all people regardless of the sins we have done.
Jesus is victorious over Satan’s temptations
Unlike Adam and Eve, when Jesus was tempted by Satan He resisted. After Jesus is baptized He enters into the wilderness for forty days. While in the wilderness Satan tempts Jesus with wealth, comfort, food, anything he could to cause Jesus to fail in His mission, but Jesus remained faithful to the task at hand. That task was paying for the sins of mankind. Seeking and saving the lost. Jesus resisted every temptation and every sin and when the time came He surrendered Himself over to the will of the Father saying, “Not my will but Yours be done.” Jesus went to the cross free of sin and He took our sin upon Himself so that we might have His righteousness. In His death Jesus swallowed up the wrath of God and paid the penalty for our sin and with His resurrection He conquered death making the way for us to have eternal life with Him.
He is the last and better Adam
So also it is written, “The first man, Adam, became a living soul.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural; then the spiritual. The first man is from the earth, earthy; the second man is from heaven. As is the earthy, so also are those who are earthy; and as is the heavenly, so also are those who are heavenly. Just as we have borne the image of the earthy, we will also bear the image of the heavenly.
Adam was of the flesh and he failed to live to the standard of God’s glory but Jesus being of the flesh but also of the Spirit made the way for all to be born again by faith. He does what Adam did not. He lived a sinless life and by the resurrection power offered by grace through faith we can be born again into a new life, not one built in the flesh but one anchored of the spirit. Jesus is the first born from the dead and a new Adam to all born again by the Spirit.
He is the promised One of God and the blessing for all nations
While the Old Testament was given to the people of Israel, the promise of redemption and the hope promised to Abraham was for all people. We can have confidence knowing that because of what Jesus has done on our behalf we have a hope that can never be taken away. When God promised this redemption He didn’t make the promise on human faithfulness but instead made the promise with Himself. Mankind would never be able to keep their end of the agreement and so God made the promise with Himself and sent Jesus to keep our part of the promise.
For when God made the promise to Abraham, since He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself, saying, “I will surely bless you and I will surely multiply you.” And so, having patiently waited, he obtained the promise. For men swear by one greater than themselves, and with them an oath given as confirmation is an end of every dispute. In the same way God, desiring even more to show to the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of His purpose, interposed with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to take hold of the hope set before us. This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil, where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us, having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.
He is obedient to the law of Moses
“Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill. “For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished.
He is a king on David’s throne.
In 2 Samuel 7 God makes another promise this time it is with David. God promises that David would have a son on the throne forever. Within a couple hundred years that isn’t the case. Within two generations the Nation of Israel was split in half and within a few hundred years the northern kingdom of Israel had been wiped off the planet and the southern kingdom of Judah was captured by the Babylonians. Even though God’s people were able to return to the promised land they never had another king like David. Does this mean God broke His promise? No! The throne God promised was a spiritual one. Jesus was born into the tribe of Judah and born in the line of King David. He is a descendant of David and King of all Kings.
The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; for you have found favor with God. “And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus. “He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David; and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end.”
He is our Sacrificial Lamb
Throughout the Old Testament sacrifices were made to cover sins that were committed. The book of Leviticus details all the specific sacrifices required of God’s people. One of the clearest examples we see of this is with the festival of passover.
Now the Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, “This month shall be the beginning of months for you; it is to be the first month of the year to you. “Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying, ‘On the tenth of this month they are each one to take a lamb for themselves, according to their fathers’ households, a lamb for each household. ‘Now if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his neighbor nearest to his house are to take one according to the number of persons in them; according to what each man should eat, you are to divide the lamb. ‘Your lamb shall be an unblemished male a year old; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats. ‘You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month, then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel is to kill it at twilight. ‘Moreover, they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. ‘They shall eat the flesh that same night, roasted with fire, and they shall eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. ‘Do not eat any of it raw or boiled at all with water, but rather roasted with fire, both its head and its legs along with its entrails. ‘And you shall not leave any of it over until morning, but whatever is left of it until morning, you shall burn with fire. ‘Now you shall eat it in this manner: with your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it in haste—it is the Lord’s Passover. ‘For I will go through the land of Egypt on that night, and will strike down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments—I am the Lord. ‘The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live; and when I see the blood I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.
God commanded Israel to kill a spotless lamb and use its blood to paint their doorposts. Then when God would carry out the tenth plague against Egypt God would passover Israel and they would be safe. This became a festival in Israel’s history and a symbol of what Jesus would do on the cross. Jesus is the spotless lamb slain for us. His blood is what covers us from God’s wrath.
He was despised and forsaken of men, A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; And like one from whom men hide their face He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him. He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He did not open His mouth; Like a lamb that is led to slaughter, And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, So He did not open His mouth.
He is our High Priest
The role of the High Priest is to intercede on behalf of the people. They would do this by going into the Temple and making sacrifices. They were allowed to enter into the Holy of Holies where God’s presence dwelt. Jesus is our sacrificial lamb but He is also our High Priest. It is Jesus who goes before us and intercedes on our behalf with the Father.
In Hebrews the author of Hebrews explains this process and points to our need for Jesus. Lambs alone were not enough to do away with the people’s sins. Making sacrifices covered their sin but it didn’t do away with their sin. Its like cleaning your room by sweeping everything under a rug. You can’t see it but the problem is still there. We need something more than a bunch of animals to restore our relationship with God. This is why Jesus goes where we could not and offers a more sufficient sacrifice for us.
Now even the first covenant had regulations of divine worship and the earthly sanctuary. For there was a tabernacle prepared, the outer one, in which were the lampstand and the table and the sacred bread; this is called the holy place. Behind the second veil there was a tabernacle which is called the Holy of Holies, having a golden altar of incense and the ark of the covenant covered on all sides with gold, in which was a golden jar holding the manna, and Aaron’s rod which budded, and the tables of the covenant; and above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat; but of these things we cannot now speak in detail. Now when these things have been so prepared, the priests are continually entering the outer tabernacle performing the divine worship, but into the second, only the high priest enters once a year, not without taking blood, which he offers for himself and for the sins of the people committed in ignorance. The Holy Spirit is signifying this, that the way into the holy place has not yet been disclosed while the outer tabernacle is still standing, which is a symbol for the present time. Accordingly both gifts and sacrifices are offered which cannot make the worshiper perfect in conscience, since they relate only to food and drink and various washings, regulations for the body imposed until a time of reformation. But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation; and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? For this reason He is the mediator of a new covenant, so that, since a death has taken place for the redemption of the transgressions that were committed under the first covenant, those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance. For where a covenant is, there must of necessity be the death of the one who made it. For a covenant is valid only when men are dead, for it is never in force while the one who made it lives. Therefore even the first covenant was not inaugurated without blood. For when every commandment had been spoken by Moses to all the people according to the Law, he took the blood of the calves and the goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, saying, “This is the blood of the covenant which God commanded you.” And in the same way he sprinkled both the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry with the blood. And according to the Law, one may almost say, all things are cleansed with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. Therefore it was necessary for the copies of the things in the heavens to be cleansed with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ did not enter a holy place made with hands, a mere copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us; nor was it that He would offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the holy place year by year with blood that is not his own. Otherwise, He would have needed to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now once at the consummation of the ages He has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment, so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await Him.
But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation;
and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.
For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh,
how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
For this reason He is the mediator of a new covenant, so that, since a death has taken place for the redemption of the transgressions that were committed under the first covenant, those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.
For where a covenant is, there must of necessity be the death of the one who made it.
For a covenant is valid only when men are dead, for it is never in force while the one who made it lives.
Therefore even the first covenant was not inaugurated without blood.
For when every commandment had been spoken by Moses to all the people according to the Law, he took the blood of the calves and the goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people,
saying, “This is the blood of the covenant which God commanded you.”
And in the same way he sprinkled both the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry with the blood.
And according to the Law, one may almost say, all things are cleansed with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.
Therefore it was necessary for the copies of the things in the heavens to be cleansed with these, but athe heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.
For Christ did not enter a holy place made with hands, a mere copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us;
nor was it that He would offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the holy place ayear by year with blood that is not his own.
Otherwise, He would have needed to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now once at the consummation of the ages He has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.
And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment,
so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await Him.
This is a long passage but it is important we understand what is being said. To have atonement a priest would have to enter into a man-made temple and offer an animal to cover up the sin that was committed. When Jesus enters into the Holy of Holies as our High Priest He does not enter into a temple made by human hands but He goes before the Father in Heaven. Not only that but the blood He shed didn’t just cover our sin, it did away with it entirely. Jesus’ death paid the debt against us completely. It wasn’t a temporary fix. There is no need for Jesus to die again. His death was once and for all. He is an all sufficient savior. When Jesus died we seen the veil that hung in front of the Holy of Holies, this six foot thick curtain representing the seperation of mankind from the presence of God, is torn in half from top to bottom. The presence of God is not withheld from us but by faith we are sealed with the Spirit of God as an assurance of our salvation.
All of this boils down to a single moment. All the Old Testament building to the birth of Jesus, His ministry building to when He would make this final payment, and now three days in a tomb while we wait to see if the payment cleared and if Jesus truly was who He said He was. The good news is that the grave could not hold Jesus. On the third day He rose from the grave in victory over sin and death. Now we are a people of hope, transformed by the Gospel.
This is why we worship Jesus, this is why we celebrate the Gospel, Christ has humbled Himself and taken our place paying the penalty of our sin, and rising again He has defeated death on the cross and has received the name that is above every other name. Scripture says that after Jesus rose He appeared to over 500 people before He ascended back to Heaven. Now He sits at the right hand of the Father with all authority on Heaven and on Earth. And with that authority He calls us to follow Him. To serve like Him. Love like Him. Live in humility like Him. A student is not greater than their teacher. Jesus has shown us how to make disciples, He has called us to that task, and He is with us empowering us and equipping us to serve Him as His church.