Jesus Is .... Scarifice Series

Jesus Is …

Sacrifice

Dr. Marty Baker / March 24, 2013

Hello! My name is Marty Baker and I want to welcome you to Stevens Creek Church. We are so glad that you are here today. Today we are joining with millions of Christians around the world and celebrating Palm Sunday. Today, we remember Jesus as the one who rode victoriously into Jerusalem with the crowds waving Palm branches crying out, “Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.” Hosanna means “Lord, save us.” The multitudes that day recognized Jesus as the Messiah and cried out, “Lord, save us.”

In today’s world we use the word “save” so loosely that we often lose sight of how powerful that concept really is. For the most part, when we think about saving someone, we think about someone going under in a pool of water and we toss a life-preserver their way and they are saved from drowning. Or maybe we think about putting something away for safe keeping. We can think of a lot of different ways to save.

Ways to Save:

In this box, there are several items that demonstrate ways to save. Here’s the first one and probably the most familiar ….

1. Piggy Bank.

I had one of these when I was a kid. I was encouraged to put my lose change in it. To this day, my Dad has a glass jug that he puts his lose change in. It’s a simple way to save.

2. Coupons.

Coupons are a great way to save. For instance, you can get twice as much food if you use this coupon right here (show coupon). If you eat all of that food, you will gain weight. Then, you can use this coupon to get two free weeks at the gym. Did you know we have a small group that shares faith and coupons here at The Creek. They have taken the concept of saving one step further.

Speaking of saving, when I was in high school I worked at …the saving place. I did not work at a church; I worked at Kmart … the savings place.

I started working at Kmart loading fertilizer and garden supplies. Then, they found out I could talk and I became one of the blue light special folks. The blue light special was flashing blue light on a pole that shoppers ran to for savings.

If you were in my store in those days, you may heard this: Kmart Shoppers, the blue light is now flashing in our garden department where you will find 5-10-10 fertilizer for the low price of 2.99. Yes, that’s 2.99 for the next ten minutes so hurry on back to the garden shop and as always, “Thank You for shopping here at Kmart.”

We love to save and saving is important. Here’s the next item in our box. (Hold up a floppy disk)

3. Floppy Disk

I realize that there may be some folks here that do not know what this is. It’s a floppy disk. I learned about floppy disk the hard way.

I graduated college in 1983. In those days, we did not have computers at our college. We used type writers and white out. Shortly after graduation, I entered the master’s program at Samford University. Graduate school was different than college. People were serious about their studies and the library had computers.

At this point in my life, I had only heard about computers and had never really used one. One day, I went to the library and sat down at a computer and started typing like I knew what I was doing. After an hour or so, I hit a button and my work disappeared. I went to the librarian and asked her how to get my work off the computer. She said, “Do you have a floppy drive?” I said, “What’s a floppy drive?” I learned a practical lesson … the difference of work being saved and work being lost.

Speaking of college, here’s the last item in the box. This item is familiar to all of us. This one reminds us the pain of being lost. What is it?

4. Save the “A”.

We all know about this one. Needless to say, we lost our appeal and we did not save the “A”. It’s painful to be on the losing side.

Like I said earlier, we use the word “save” so loosely that we often forget how powerful that concept is … the concept that Jesus saves us.

On Palm Sunday in AD 29, the crowds lined the streets of Jerusalem and waved Palms Branches as Jesus rode into town. They cried out, “Lord, save us.”

Later that week, the tables turned and those same individuals cried out, “Crucify him.” It all started when on Thursday of Passover, Jesus was betrayed by one of his disciples. He was arrested, taken to the Caiaphas’ house and interrogated.