Series Introduction:
Today we start the countdown to Easter. That’s the highest day in the church year. However, there is only one way to arrive at the empty tomb of Easter Sunday. Like Jesus we need to travel to the cross.
For the next 8 weeks we will discover the blessings or benefits we can receive because Jesus died on the cross. These blessings are often called by one name – the atonement. There are several explanations or theories of how the atonement works. There are at least seven. Some Christians claim their favorite is the only right one.
I tend to agree with the writer who declared, “There is an essential mystery about the atonement, so that men cannot know completely how it works.”
Citation: Leon Morris in Basic Christian Doctrines, edited by Carl F. H. Henry, Baker Book House, 1962
Introduction:
I grew up singing a song with these words:
That God should love a sinner such as I
Should yearn to change my sorrow into bliss
Nor rest till He had planned to bring me nigh
How wonderful is love like this?
That Christ should join so freely in the scheme
Although it meant His death on Calvary
Did ever human tongue find nobler theme
Than love divine that ransomed me?
That for a willful outcast such as I
The Father planned, the Savior bled and died
Redemption for a worthless slave to buy
Who long had law and grace defied.
CHORUS
Such love, such wondrous love
Such love, such wondrous love
That God should love a sinner such as I
How wonderful is love like this.
Thesis:
Jesus died to pay the ransom that would set us free from slavery.
Key Question:
Why did Jesus need to pay a ransom to set us free?
Text:
To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
They answered him, “We are Abraham's descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?”
Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. (John 8:31-36)
I. We are slaves to sin because we have all sinned.
A. In case you’re not sure about that, listen to this list of sins from Romans 1. (28-32)
Since they thought it foolish to acknowledge God, he abandoned them to their foolish thinking and let them do things that should never be done. Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, quarreling, deception, malicious behavior, and gossip. They are backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud, and boastful. They invent new ways of sinning, and they disobey their parents. They refuse to understand, break their promises, are heartless, and have no mercy. They know God’s justice requires that those who do these things deserve to die, yet they do them anyway. Worse yet, they encourage others to do them, too.
B. If you’ve done nothing else, I’m sure you disobeyed your parents. That is sin and so you are a slave to sin.
Text:
Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death — that is, the devil — and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. For this reason he had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people.
II. We are also slaves to Satan who tempts us to sin makes us slaves to fear.
A.
Text:
When the ten heard about this, they were indignant with the two brothers. Jesus called them together and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave — just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Matthew 20:24-28)
When the ten heard about this, they became indignant with James and John. Jesus called them together and said, “You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:41-45)
III. In contrast to the average human leader, Jesus came to serve and to be a sacrificial ransom for our freedom.
A. “Many” should be taken, not in contrast with few or with all, but in distinction to one – the one Son of man for the many sinners.
Text:
God our Savior … wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all men…. (1 Timothy 2:3-6)
IV. God wants all humans to be set free from slavery to sin and Satan so Jesus gave his life as a ransom for all of us.
A.
Text:
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!
For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance — now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant. (Hebrews 9:13-15)
V. Jesus’ ransom sacrifice on the cross sets us free from the failures to keep his Law.
A.
CONCLUSION:
Jesus paid a ransom for us because we were slaves to sin and Satan. His death on the cross purchased our freedom. This gift is freely offered to all human beings.
REPENTANCE POINT: How should you change?
Most of us hate the idea of being called a slave to anything – especially sin and Satan. However, Jesus died to set us free and we cannot receive it until we admit our need.
