Passion: Death of Death

As a pastor and a father, we have so much opportunity to preach from the experiences we have with our kids. Often though we can’t tell the stories either because they don’t want us to or maybe because it’s a private matter. This is one of those stories… so I’ll protect the inocent and the not so inocent and I won’t be using names

One day two parentss were at home cleaning up after dinner when they got a knock on the door. It was th epolice. Not what any parent wants to have happen. The officer asked where their child was, ??? playing with friends in the neighborhood… ok, officer leaves.

Parents are left wondering what is going on???

Comes back … officer comes back… saw them in the ditch hiding

dripping wet… I wasn’t in the pool

His story was that he went back to get clothes of a friend and thats when he got wet… but still… he was in the pool… but he wasn’t swimming he told us...

We asked the officer if the neighbors wanted to press charges… they said no so we sent Kyle to his room while we talked about how we were going to handle this.

Kyle’s pool episode… his crime was cute… but I tried to be stern

But to God our sin is not cute… the cross reminds us of this

Jesus’ death shows us how deep God’s love is.

We pick up our story in . Last week, we left Jesus nailed to the cross, the place of suffering,

John 19:25-27

John 19:25–27 NIV

25 Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. 26 When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to her, “Woman, here is your son,” 27 and to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” From that time on, this disciple took her into his home.

John 19:25-At the very end Jesus was focused on others

At the very end Jesus was focused on others

Jesus put others before himself all through out his life and here he is, at the doorstep of death and what do we see? He’s concerned for others. His dying wish is for his mother to be cared for by his friend.

John 19:28-30

John 19:28–30 NIV

28 Later, knowing that everything had now been finished, and so that Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.” 29 A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus’ lips. 30 When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

John 19:Does our appreciation for the cross allow us to avoid the death

What is “it”?

It is the rule of sin

Adam and Eve - Curse of sin - broken order of creation

Covenant people - given means for forgiveness - couldn’t stop sin

Jesus came to defeat sin and death

Listen to these passages:

Colossians 2:13-15

Colossians 2:13–15 NIV

13 When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, 14 having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. 15 And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.

2 Corinthians 5:21

2 Corinthians 5:21 NIV

21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Ephesians 2:4–5 NIV

4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.

1 Peter 2:24–25 NIV

24 “He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.” 25 For “you were like sheep going astray,” but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.

Jesus’ death shows us the seriousness of sin

We don’t think of sin as being that big of a deal… especially teh small ones.

But is there really a small one? Jesus died for them all, the big ones, the small ones.

Because every sin is short of God’s desire for us. God wants us to love perfectly, Loving God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength our neighbor as ourselves, like Jesus… anything short of that is sin.

Throughout scripture, God has called his people to repentence, but in order for the relationship to be restored, God provided a means, through sacrifice… but these sacrifices didn’t remove sin

I am thankful that God takes our sin so serious, but if I’m honest, The way God deals with my sin makes me very uncomfortable

God being God couldn’t he just forgive us? Why did Jesus have to die?

Why… Why… Why...

We look at the cross and we don’t want to think that someone would die like that for me… so why did he?

To understand that we have to understand God

God is Holy

God is Just

John 19:31-37

John 19:31–37 NIV

31 Now it was the day of Preparation, and the next day was to be a special Sabbath. Because the Jewish leaders did not want the bodies left on the crosses during the Sabbath, they asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies taken down. 32 The soldiers therefore came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with Jesus, and then those of the other. 33 But when they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. 34 Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water. 35 The man who saw it has given testimony, and his testimony is true. He knows that he tells the truth, and he testifies so that you also may believe. 36 These things happened so that the scripture would be fulfilled: “Not one of his bones will be broken,” 37 and, as another scripture says, “They will look on the one they have pierced.”

John 19:31-Does our appreciation for the cross allow us to avoid the death

Jesus’ death makes us uncomfortable, and it should.

This is a hard scene.

John spares us much of the detail, thankfully. But even still, it’s hard to visualize.

Several years ago, I went to Guatemala and while there I visited several Catholic churches. They were all beautiful, but in one of them I saw something that I had never seen before in church. A model of Jesus on the cross in the back on one side and teh tomb of Jesus on the other that you walked by on teh way out.

You couldn’t get out without being confronted by the reality of Jesus’ sacrificial death.

It made me think how I as a protestant like a plain cross. I like the pharisee’s in today’s passage want to move past this whole death thing as quickly as I can… not because it’s passover, but because it’s hard to take in.

But moving past it because it makes me uncomfortable I miss something.

Here watch this from today’s text:

VIDEO

But wasn’t there another way?

God being God couldn’t he just forgive us? Why did Jesus have to die?

Why… Why… Why...

We look at the cross and we don’t want to think that someone would die like that for me… so why did he?

To understand that we have to understand God

God is Holy

God is Just

God is perfectly loving

Jesus’ death shows us the depth of God’s love

God created us, God loves us so much that he gave his only son, to die in our place that we might live with him forever. He sent Jesus to the world, not to condemn humanity, to judge sinners, but to save us who were lost.

This loves moves people to respond.

Look at our text:

John 19:38-42

John 19:38–42 NIV

38 Later, Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of Jesus. Now Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jewish leaders. With Pilate’s permission, he came and took the body away. 39 He was accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who earlier had visited Jesus at night. Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds. 40 Taking Jesus’ body, the two of them wrapped it, with the spices, in strips of linen. This was in accordance with Jewish burial customs. 41 At the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had ever been laid. 42 Because it was the Jewish day of Preparation and since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.

John 19:38-42

Jesus’ death draws faith out of shadows

Jesus’ death drew Joseph out of the shadows

Kyle out of no where... taking a leap of faith… couldn’t wait any longer… had to do something…

“yall were just talking about it”

Our to nowhere… Joseph and Nicodemus appear… they had been shadow Christians.

But seeing Jesus die this way, drew them out. They could no longer stay in the shadows.

even if it meant they would lose the respect of the sanhedrin, their peers, they were going to respond.

We don’t know how many were talking about doing something but hadn’t moved yet...We don’t know if they didn’t respond who else would have stepped up. What we do know is that these two men stepped up.

We don’t know if they didn’t respond who else would have stepped up. What we do know is that these two men stepped up.

I believe you can’t look at the death of Jesus and not make a decision. You either look accept it or reject it. I also believe that God is moving in our lives to draw us to him. I believe that if you are worshipping with me today, God is calling you to look again at the Crucifixion… to look again at how he provides for you in his death, how seriously he takes sin, how deep his love is… God is calling his church out of the shadows.

Jesus’ death tells us that God’s love for us is that deep