True Sacrifice

Introduction: I’m not sure if many of ya’ll ever get confused on Sundays or Tuesdays when a preaching is given, and that’s completely understandable because of most of those sermons are geared towards adults and adult problems, that many of ya’ll might not have experienced yet. My hope with these classes is to simplify some of those stories so we can all understand them and learn from the experiences of the stories in the Bible

So we’re going to start with the basics, the life of Jesus, true sacrifice and why he had to be sacrificed.

I’m sure most of ya’ll have heard about the life of Jesus, Born of a virgin, performed miracles, 12 disciples and eventually crucified on the cross only to be born again 3 days later, But how many of ya’ll actually know why he had to be crucified?

Definition of sacrifice:an act of slaughtering an animal or person or surrendering a possession as an offering to God or to a divine or supernatural figure.

A definition i like better is this one though an act of giving up something valued for the sake of something else regarded as more important or worthy.

Birth of Jesus

Matthew 1:20–23 (ESV)

But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet:

“Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,

and they shall call his name Immanuel”

(which means, God with us).

The birth of Jesus, was not an ordinary birth, angels literally appeared to people and told them that a man would be born that was the son of God and would save the people from sin. People knew that the birth and life of jesus would impact the world so much that a king even tried to have him killed, ya’ll believe that? A king was scared of a baby that hadnt even been born yet.

Matthew 2:13–15 (ESV)

Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt and remained there until the death of Herod.

Even a mighty king was scared of the birth of Jesus, he was scared because he was a jealous king, he was scared of loosing his kingdom. But Jesus wasnt here to be a king of wordly kingdoms. He is literally the king of all, the almight, The Great I Am.

In order to actually get to the sacrifice and the message i want to get across we’re going to skip a lot of things for this teaching, which later on we’ll have more than enough time to get into and take a deep dive into the life of jesus.

On to some of the miracles that jesus performed.

Jesus performed many miracles in his life some of the most notable ones was casting out demons, which hadn’t really been done before, we have jesus teaching at a synagogue, and the people here are amazed at his teachings because he is with authority, as someone who knows what they are saying and demands attention.

Mark 1:23-28

Just then, a man in their synagogue who was possessed by an impure spirt cried out, “What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazarth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are –the Holy One of God!” “Be quit,” said Jesus sternly. “Come out of him!” the impure spirit shook the man violently and came out of him with a shriek. The people were all so amazed that they asked each other, “What is this? A new teaching-and with authority! He even gives orders to impure spirts and they obey him”

Here we see that while he is teaching at the synagogue one of the attendees who is possessed starts demanding to know why he is there?? and got with almost no words but with all the authority in heaven just says “Be quit come out of him” the Demons have no choice but to pay attention to the ruler of heaven, demons know their place and now they cant stand up to jesus. and all the people are amazed, like who is this man that even spirits listen to and he has dominion over them??

Jesus didnt know cast out demons and give teachings with authority, he also healed the sick and even brought people back from the dead,

Luke 7 talks about the faith of a centurian, this man sends some servants to speak to Jesus and ask him if he can heal his servant who is really sick and almost close to death, jesus tells him that due to his faith when he gets back the servant will be healed, and sure enough when the man gets to his house his servant is healed and healthy.

If that wasnt enough were going to read luke 8

49 While Jesus was still speaking, someone came from the house of Jairus, the synagogue leader. “Your daughter is dead,” he said. “Don’t bother the teacher anymore.”

50 Hearing this, Jesus said to Jairus, “Don’t be afraid; just believe, and she will be healed.”

51 When he arrived at the house of Jairus, he did not let anyone go in with him except Peter, John and James, and the child’s father and mother.52 Meanwhile, all the people were wailing and mourning for her. “Stop wailing,” Jesus said. “She is not dead but asleep.”

53 They laughed at him, knowing that she was dead. 54 But he took her by the hand and said, “My child, get up!” 55 Her spirit returned, and at once she stood up. Then Jesus told them to give her something to eat

If someone came up to you and said i can resurrect the dead would you believe them??

I guess some of the people around jesus in this instance hadnt seen him perform the miracles because they laughed at him, they knew the girl was dead and this man who they thought was only a man said shes not dead she only sleeps. I’m sure when they saw the girl coming out of the house their mouths just dropped in awe.

By this time in his early ministry, the Lord had demonstrated his total authority over nature, demonic powers, disease, and even death. Every force of life was driven to bow at His feet

As the Son of God, Jesus exercised authority over demons and disease. He was intimately connected with the Father, and He was sent by the Father to do the Father’s will.

Question:Ask if someone would ask one of you to be sacrificed for people you have never met if anyone was willing?

Since the first sin, the link to God was broken, you couldnt just sit here like we do know close your eyes and talk to God, people would need sacrifice, they would need a priest to intercede for them, basically what that means is they would need someone to speak to God on their behalf.

In the Old Testament times, the people of Israel followed the practice of sacrifices in order to pay the debt for their sins. God’s laws determined what types of sacrifices were required in order to atone for different sins. Imagine if every time you sinned you had to sacrifice a goat, cow, etc. and these weren’t like your typical animal either, it had to be perfect and have no blemish, so after you sinned in order for God to forgive you, you would literally have to go find a perfect animal.

The way it worked out was once a year a lot of people would get together and go to a priest and have the priest enter the holy place at the temple, which was were the Gods presence was, and then the priest would offer the peoples sacrifice and if it was pleasing to the lord they would all be forgiven.

God saw that this wasnt really working out, this wasnt the plan God had for his people, God wanted a way for the people to speak directly to him again.

Alright.  In a nutshell, the Bible tells the story of how we all choose to make mistakes called sins, and that these sins owe a penalty.  All throughout time, humans have been trying to get rid of sin or offer up sacrifices to pay off this penalty because it keeps us from God,  The Bible explains that none of these good efforts were working so He came himself and offered himself as that sacrifice.  Basically, his love was so strong that it broke the penalty that was held over us.

sacrifice

That is why God sent his Son to the world so that through the sacrifice of Jesus we could gain grace and forgiveness,

Bible verse

John 3:17- God did not send the son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

In doing so, he took all the punishment for all of our sins at once, this made jesus the ultimate sacrifice!

Hebrews 10:15-18

“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.”

Then he adds:

“their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more”

And where these have been forgiven, sacrifice for sin is no longer necessary.

I’m sure most of us here know about the crucification of Jesus, he was marched through the city carrying his own cross that he would be nailed on. He was beat, he was mocked, as he was on the cross the people yelled he saved others but cant save himself?If he is the king of Isreal let him come down and we’ll believe him.

English Standard Version Chapter 27

And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit.

51 And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split.

Here we see that with Jesus sacrifice the curtain seperating the holy of holies and the holy place was torn from top to bottom at the time of Jesus’ death which signified that access that all people had to God from that day forward. This is why Jesus had to die, so that you and me could be forgiven and the link betweeen humanity and God would be unsevered, now you and me can just pray directly to god, Jesus took that position of the priest and with his life gave us everlasting life.