Christ the promised Saviour

Single-mindedly on his way to accomplish salvation

Votum

Let us worship the Lord.

Send forth your light and your truth, let them guide me; let them bring me to your holy mountain, to the place where you dwell. (Psalm 43:3)

Greeting:

Grace to you from God the Father, and Jesus Christ our Lord through the work of the Holy Spirit.

Doxology: Hymn no 331 : “Majesty”

Invocation and the Lord’s Prayer

Invocation

The Lord’s Prayer

Hymn: No 89: “Glory be to God in heaven”

Scripture Reading: Isaiah 53:1-12

Prayer of Adoration and Confession

Declaration of pardoning

When Christ came as high priest of the good things that are already here, he went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not man-made, that is to say, not a part of this creation. He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption. The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God! (Hebrews 9:11-14)

Hymn: No 285: “How blest the righteous …”

Announcements

Offering and Dedication

Scripture Reading: Mark 10:32-34

Sermon

Introduction

Brother and Sister in the Lord,

It is impossible to take the events unfolding in the New Testament, especially as we see it in the life of Jesus Christ, and dislodge it form its wider Biblical context. We need to see that what has happened to our Lord and Saviour is part of God’s plan of salvation. And this plan of salvation is not some emergency or contingency that caught the Lord on the wrong foot.

8 It all began in paradise. We know the history. God made a covenant with Adam and Eve. He created with the ability of perfect obedience. They chose wrongly in their rebellion.

8 They listen to the voice of the Tempter and rejected God’s plan for their life. God could have left them there, but in his mercy He made another covenant. This is the covenant of grace. To accomplish the salvation which would once again restore the relationship between God and mankind, He gave them a promise:

8 Some day, in the fullness of time He would send a Saviour who would crush the head of the serpent; He would have victory over Satan and defeat him utterly. This promise is also referred to as the protevangelium: it is the good news of redemption preceding the coming of that Saviour.

8 Throughout the Old Testament, all the sacrifices, all the ceremonial laws, the festivals and the customs, as well as the promises pointed forward to the coming of that promised Saviour. Joshua was a prototype of Jesus; so was Moses, Elijah, the prophets and the priests and all the Kings. The One to be born would be the Son of David – and He would have an eternal Kingdom.

8 Then, the angel appeared to Mary and told her that she would conceive of the Holy Spirit. To Joseph the angel said:

She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”
All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: the virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call Him Emmanuel – which means “God with us”. (Matthew 1:21-22)

When Jesus commenced his public ministry, there at the river Jordan, God descended from heaven and the voice said: “This is my Son, whom I love; with Him I am well pleased.”

Promise and fulfilment

8 Between paradise and the ministry of Jesus Christ God elected for Him a people. With them He made a covenant. This all began in Adam, through Noah and then more specifically through Abraham.

God promised to be their God. He gave them his commandments and laws to which they were supposed to be faithful.

8 He promised them his blessings of prosperity, of safety, of respect from the surrounding nations; He would give them peace; He would give them rain in season and He would keep from them pestilences and war. Study the covenants God made with Adam, Noah and Abraham very closely and we will see all these things. As a matter of fact, God did not deal with his people other that to enter into a covenant with them. Let’s just look very briefly to what God promised upon obedience. Look it up in Deuteronomy 28:3-14.

8 But there was the counterpart to blessing: curse for disobedience. We look briefly at a few as recorded in the same chapter: the work of their hands would be cursed; their children will wear the consequences; ruin, diseases, pestilences, war, heat, drought, plague, defeat by the enemies, death, tumours, sores, madness, blindness and confusion of mind; failing marriages, children enslaved to foreign nations, oppression, captivity by foreign nations, etc. Go read through that tonight.

8 The Israelites as God’s elected nation, once again rebelled against God. Like Adam and Eve rebelling against God, they rebelled against God, rejected his covenant. They were supposed to be God’s serving nation, but they became God’s rebellious nation. The result: God rejected them. All the curses of the covenant fell upon them. Instead them being the glory of the nations, they became the nations which all the others mocked. They took the scorn they deserved.

8 Christ, the Servant

But God did not forget His people; He did what He promised right there in the beginning: He kept the covenant, but this time it would call for a perfect Redeemer. Not the blood of bulls and calves anymore; they would be the shadows of the perfect sacrifice. Now God would send the One who would crush the head of the serpent once for all. He is perfect priest, perfect prophet, perfect King. He would now become the Head of a new covenant. He would purchase with his blood a race for God. He would take away the same of God’s people, be taking the same and guilt of sin upon Himself. He would die to make the perfect sacrifice. But He would rise on the third day to bring about a complete new dispensation – this time God will send the Gospel to all nations of al times.

8 The Cross

In the light of what we have heard tonight, we must believe that the cross was no surprise to Jesus. He was sent to save, to die and to take upon Him the shame and curses of sin.

8 That was God’s plan of redemption. He provided a Lamb, without blemish. He laid down his life, freely and willingly. Look at our verse tonight:

They were on their way up to Jerusalem, with Jesus leading the way, and the disciples were astonished, while those who followed were afraid. Again he took the Twelve aside and told them what was going to happen to him. (Mark 10:32)

This was the third time He talked to his disciples about his death. And now, willingly, single-mindedly, purposefully, He walked to way to meet God’s requirement for victory over sin.

He told his followers that He will be rejected by his own people, just as they rejected God before. As they killed the prophets then, so they will do again. As God spoke to his people then, so He will now do it again. As the sacrifice of lambs did not atone in completeness, now He will be the final perfect atonement. But to do that, He will suffer, be rejected. We need to read some verse out of Isa 53 again. Of Him, the servant-King is written:

He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. (Isaiah 53:3-7)

He took the scorn, the mocking, the condemnation, the flogging, the spitting that was on the people because of their covenant disobedience, upon Him. He took the full curse of disobedience to the covenant upon Him. He will give Himself to be killed, hanged on a cross to pay the penalty of disobedience to the covenant God who gave his covenant law to be living by, because cursed is everyone who do not abide by every commandment.

8 The price paid

8 But Jesus did not come to die for our sins only. The righteousness before the Father includes Him procuring a new life. His resurrection opened paradise again. He restored life to the Father once again.

8 The lamb, slain on Calvary was the fulfilment of God’s promise made in paradise. When He rose on the third day, He had victory over sin, hell, Satan and death. Indeed, He crushed the head of the serpent.

8 Now He, the King of all kings reigns. He is the Son of David who knows no defeat. By his perfect obedience He acquired righteousness, and as such He became more than Adam, Noah, Abraham or David: He became Head of the renewed covenant. He fulfilled the law, by giving it complete meaning; He did not abolish the law, but by his death and resurrection his righteousness bought justification before God. We don’t stand condemned before God, but declare saved. Why? How? Listen to Hebrews 10:1-16:

Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God. Since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool, because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy. The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. First he says: “This is the covenant I will make with them after that time, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds.” (Hebrews 10:11-16)