Untitled Sermon (5)

Next week, we begin the first of two message series focusing on our roles in service in our homes, in our communities, and in our church. We will be challenging every person at Valley Bristol to be a part of Sunday serving team. And those of you who currently serve, but might be able to help in two areas, we will be challenging you to do so.

God is giving us a new chapter of ministry, a new season to prepare for harvest. We need to take care of our home, so that when we invite others to share it with us, our walk demonstrates our talk.

That starts next week with a series called, The Called, and will continue through May with a second series called, Your Part Matters. We look forward to our next steps as we prepare to be released into the city of Bristol in Jesus Name.

Ok.

You know, the gathering of people who surrounded the cross subsequent to the Resurrection Day is a kind of picture of the church today. All of humanity was represented in death at Golgotha (where Jesus died), and all of humanity can experience and receive new life through faith in the Resurrected Christ.

The question is:

How many will move from death at Golgotha to life out of the grave?

Too many people, even those who call themselves Christians, will flock to the cross, believe that Jesus died, but never step toward the empty tomb - they will never actually put their faith in the Risen Savior Jesus Christ.

And I am not so presumptive to think that even now, in this very room, there aren’t people among us for whom such a statement is true of them.

So let’s see who was around the cross first, break it down, and then we will see who took the journey of faith to the empty tomb.

Luke 23:26–43 ESV

26 And as they led him away, they seized one Simon of Cyrene, who was coming in from the country, and laid on him the cross, to carry it behind Jesus. 27 And there followed him a great multitude of the people and of women who were mourning and lamenting for him. 28 But turning to them Jesus said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. 29 For behold, the days are coming when they will say, ‘Blessed are the barren and the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!’ 30 Then they will begin to say to the mountains, ‘Fall on us,’ and to the hills, ‘Cover us.’ 31 For if they do these things when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?” 32 Two others, who were criminals, were led away to be put to death with him. 33 And when they came to the place that is called The Skull, there they crucified him, and the criminals, one on his right and one on his left. 34 And Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” And they cast lots to divide his garments. 35 And the people stood by, watching, but the rulers scoffed at him, saying, “He saved others; let him save himself, if he is the Christ of God, his Chosen One!” 36 The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine 37 and saying, “If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!” 38 There was also an inscription over him, “This is the King of the Jews.” 39 One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, “Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!” 40 But the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? 41 And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.” 42 And he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” 43 And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

Luke 26:

Verses 26-27

Believers are represented by the wailing women and Simon the Cyrenian.

Church historians suggest that Simon the Cyrenian was likely a key figure in the early Christian church, with his connection to followers of Jesus traced back to this very event (his carrying of Jesus’ cross). It is not unreasonable to surmise that Simon was a believer because, who but a believer would dare carry the cross of Christ in this situation? Christians are often scared to carry their own crosses today, what do you think it would have been like to carry Jesus’ actual cross during His actual crucifixion?

The wailing women were, understandably, weeping for their beloved Savior. But Jesus warns them that a time worse than this is coming and that they need to be ready for the coming destruction of their city, Jerusalem.

As for believers:

Believers are on the frontlines, in the crossfire of a world that hates them.

Believers are those who step forward to carry their cross, to follow the footsteps of Jesus, even unto death. Throughout the Bible, the accounts of believers demonstrate just that.

Verses 27 and 35

the masses are spoken of as “a large number of people followed” and “the people stood watching”; these represent the casual unbeliever. “The word [beholding, KJV; watching, NIV] implies that they gazed as at a solemn spectacle, ; . They seem as a body to have been far less active in insult than the others” (A. F. Kirkpatrick, Luke).

Notice that there is a distance between the casual follower and Christ

Notice that there is a delay, or, lack of action on their behalf toward Christ

Notice the divide between their actions and their interest/curiosity

It is likely that these casual onlookers were not hurling insults at Christ, but they weren’t associating themselves with Him either.

The casual, or, nominal Christian will always be marked by these three distinctives: Distance, Delay, and Divide.

There is always a gap between them and Christ. Not a gap of sin, that, of course exists for all those who do not believe, but a gap of resistance.

Why?

Because the gap of resistance gives a person a reason, they think, or an excuse, not to respond to the call of Christ for their lives. Its a comfy place where they feel close enough that they think they’re on board, but they’re really just in the waiting room.

Its like if the believers are on the airplane, the casual ones are in the terminal.

The casual ones do not want to get on the plane, for whatever reason, and they’ve convinced themselves that its enough just to hang out in the terminal, and greet the believers as they move back and forth from place to place, along God’s journeys for them (the believers).

One of the things that I have mentioned a few times is that I have no intention of attracting people to the waiting terminal of quote-unquote, church.

My prayer is that you will take the step of faith to get on the plane.

Ok.

The next group of people are these:

Active Opposers of Jesus

Those who actively opposed the Lord are represented through the soldiers (v. 36), religious leaders (v. 35), and one of the criminals (v. 39). “Rulers, soldiers, and malefactors all heaped their insults on the dying Lord, little realizing that they were all included in the great love which was pouring itself out as the propitiation for the sins of the whole world. It may be that we shall have to share the same opprobrium, if we drink of His cup and are baptized with His baptism. But God will do for us as He did for Jesus; He will not leave our soul in the grave nor suffer His own to see corruption, ” (F. B. Meyer, Through the Bible Day by Day).

Craig Keener provides some useful historical background. “Despite the precedent of Old Testament prayers for vengeance (e.g., ; ; ; ; ; ), Jesus prays that God will forgive his persecutors. Those who were executed were supposed to say, ‘May my death atone for all my sins’; but Jesus confesses instead the sin of those who falsely convicted him, who under Old Testament law were liable for his penalty before God. Ancient biographers often paralleled different figures, and Luke parallels with Jesus the first martyr of his second volume, Stephen (). Roman custom awarded the soldiers the victim’s clothes” (Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament

Acts 7:60 ESV

60 And falling to his knees he cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep.

So, who are we right now?

In this room, where are you around the cross?

Some of you are on the front lines.

Some of you may oppose Jesus.

Some of you are casual onlookers.

Where are you right now?

Its important to identify that because next, we go from death at Golgotha, to life out of the grave.

Luke 24:1–8 ESV

1 But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared. 2 And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, 3 but when they went in they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. 4 While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel. 5 And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? 6 He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, 7 that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise.” 8 And they remembered his words,

Luke 24:1–10 ESV

Luke 24:1–9 ESV

All four Gospels specify the first day of the week as the day of the Resurrection. This is why we, Christians, have our worship services on Sunday.

This was a change from the traditional Sabbath day, and it is further evidence of the truth of the Resurrection because the disciples had such strong conviction of this, the first day of the week. To change the Sabbath day to Sunday would have required a compelling reason, and there is no reason as compelling as someone raising from the dead by their own power. Not only that, but someone doing so who had been foretold that He would do so over and over again since the early days of the earth and humanity.

Providing further evidence of the Reusrrection, Luke speaks of two men, who were in fact angels, but who nonetheless were the witnesses of the Resurrection of Christ. Two witnesses, historically and biblically speaking, were the minimum number of witnesses in order to validate a claim (; ).

Verses 6-8

In these verses, Luke gives us information that is not in the other Gospels, as he recounts the angels explaining the meaning of the empty tomb.

The empty tomb is the evidence that the passion predictions were true, thus proving the validity of the person, deity, and work of Jesus Christ.

Luke 9:22 ESV

22 saying, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.”

Luke 9:43–45 ESV

43 And all were astonished at the majesty of God. But while they were all marveling at everything he was doing, Jesus said to his disciples, 44 “Let these words sink into your ears: The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men.” 45 But they did not understand this saying, and it was concealed from them, so that they might not perceive it. And they were afraid to ask him about this saying.

Luke 18:31–33 ESV

31 And taking the twelve, he said to them, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished. 32 For he will be delivered over to the Gentiles and will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon. 33 And after flogging him, they will kill him, and on the third day he will rise.”

The empty tomb means that Jesus is alive

If Jesus is alive, then He was more than just teacher or prophet

If Jesus is alive then He is the Messiah, He is God

And if Jesus is God, then we know we can trust that salvation comes only through Him, since no other person/being has prophecies concerning their death and following resurrection.

Jesus is alive!

The Savior is risen from the grave!

Life conquered death!

Jesus Christ is Lord of all!

And now we come back to the question:

Who are you?

Is your life defined by the sin’s grave, or by the Savior’s Grace?

Are you stuck as an onlooker, staring at the cross, fearing the tomb, not realizing that the grave doesn’t have to be the end of your story?

Do you scoff and rebel against God because His truth challenges your own personal views and your own personal sovereignty? That is, do you hate Jesus because He threatens your own personal kingdom? Because Jesus’ truth about your life doesn’t affirm what you want at the moment?

You know, everyone around the cross over 2000 years ago knew what was going on.

But few would truly believe.

Some didn’t want to believe.

Some were curious but little more.

Some went with Jesus all the way.

All the way to death.

All the way to the tomb.

And all the way out of the grave.

And today we still must answer the same question, who do you believe that Jesus was? Who do you believe Jesus is?

Is it worth it to you to trade the momentary comforts of this world for the eternal joys of eternity with Christ?

Or do you just want Jesus to make you feel good about the mess that you’ve allowed sin to make in your life?

On Friday we had our Good Friday service at Bridge Community Church.

And as a part of our response to God’s Word, we exchanged these bricks for communion elements.

The bricks represented sin.

And we posed the challenge, if you could carry one brick for every person who has ever or will ever live, and give your life for them, most of whom will reject you, would you do it?

Or what if each brick represented your sins. What if for every sin you’ve committed, there was one brick. Could you even carry the weight of your own sin?

Physically, no. But also spiritually, no.

Because for God’s wrath over sin to be satisfied, the one who carried the weight of sin had to be sinless Himself.

And what’s more, not only would you have to be physically strong enough, and spiritually pure enough, but you would have to be eternally sovereign (i.e., powerful) enough to surrender to death, and then raise again to life under your own power.

That’s why this day is so amazing. Jesus Christ was sinless and so He was pure enough to carry our sin. Jesus Christ was strong enough to carry our sin. Jesus Christ was powerful enough to submit to death and raise Himself back to life again. And Jesus Christ was humble enough to do this, not for Himself, but for you and me.

So that you and I, by placing our faith, our trust, in Jesus Christ as our Savior, that we might be saved forever.

Saved from the penalty of sin, which is eternity apart from Christ in hell.

Saved from the power of sin, which is the increasing strength to resist temptation and to overcome sin in our daily lives.

And saved from the presence of sin, which believers will experience when we go from this life into eternity.

Since you’re not strong enough to carry sin, not sinless enough to carry sin, and not powerful enough to raise yourself from the grave, you’ve got two choices really.

You can choose to accept what sin says about your life.

And sin is so clever because on one hand, our sinful minds and hearts try to convince us that sin doesn’t really exist. We’re not bad people. We don’t need a Savior. We’re just misunderstood.

But just as quickly, sin condemns you by reminding you of how much you’ve screwed up in your life. All the people you’ve hurt. The bad choices you’ve made. The bad habits you keep secret.

And so you spend your life trying to justify all that. And do you know why?

Because, since you’re not strong enough, sinless enough, or powerful enough to conquer sin and death, you have no choice but to try and justify what cannot possibly be justified. You spend your life making excuses for things in your life that Jesus died to overcome.

And no matter how many second opinions you try and get, you’ll never feel secure, you’ll never feel at peace.

Why?

Because you are not receiving God’s saving work done through Jesus Christ on the cross.

You’re standing around looking at trying to figure out how to do it yourself.

You don’t have to stay in death at Golgotha.

In and through faith in Christ, you can move from death to life out of the grave in Christ Jesus.

You don’t have to justify your sin, you can trust that Jesus has overcome it for you.

Jesus is no longer on the cross, Jesus is no longer in the grave.

And through faith in Him, you don’t have to be in the grave anymore, ever, forever.

Can we take the next 8 or 10 minutes and sing a couple of songs of praise and celebration for what Jesus has done for us?

We’ll sing one song that we know, and one song that is new, but you’ll pick it up quickly.

Let’s stand together and make a joyful noise in praise of our Risen Savior Jesus Christ.

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