“From the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, ‘Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?’ that is, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ And some of the bystanders, hearing it, said, ‘This man is calling Elijah.’ And one of them at once ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine, and put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink. But the others said, ‘Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to save him.’ And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit.
“And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split. The tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many. When the centurion and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were filled with awe and said, ‘Truly this was the Son of God!’” [1]
Paul Bernardo, Karla Homolka, Clifford Olson, Allan Legere, Robert Pickton—these names are tragically familiar to Canadians. Each of these names represent a serial killer convicted of multiple heinous crimes. Men, women, boys, and girls disappeared, or bodies were discovered; and at some point each of these individuals was named as “a person of interest” by those investigating the various sordid cases. Though you likely recognise these names if you have lived in Canada at some point during the past forty years, I must wonder whether you can name any one of the multiple victims these vicious murderers left in their bloody wakes? A dark feature of our modern forensic world is that we know and remember the names of violent criminals, especially murderers, but we are unable to name those killed by them. The vicious are prominently displayed in all news media, but the victims, not so much.
We recognise the names of those who are identified as a suspect in criminal cases, and we are immediately suspicious of anyone who is named as “a person of interest.” However, has a victim of crime ever been named as “a person of interest?” Perhaps we are informed that the authorities can’t identify an individual who has been murdered, or perhaps they will ask the public for information, but the authorities don’t name a victim as “a person of interest.” However, we who are Christians look to One Who was viciously and unjustly subjected to a judicial murder. I suspect it may be the only instance in history when the victim could be named as “a person of interest.”
The message this day invites you to consider the events that swirled about the death of Jesus of Nazareth. To be certain, He gave His life as a sacrifice, but from a purely human point of view, Jesus was the victim of a corrupt judiciary. And that corrupt judiciary was not only acceptable to those living at that time, but the distortion of justice was demanded by those living at that time. Especially, those who were the religious leaders, those who professed to speak on behalf of the Living God, manipulated the judiciary to accomplish their own ends.
Some of you may remember when CBS television aired a show that bore the title, “Person of Interest.” The show presented the story of a reclusive American billionaire named Harold Finch who developed a computer program for the federal government. That program was capable of collating all sources of information to predict deadly crimes. He then recruited a former Green Beret and CIA agent to investigate the person of interest, identified by a social security number.
The Word of God tells us of another Person of Interest, a real Person of Interest, someone Who should be of interest to you. What is interesting is that the Father of this Person had no desire to keep the identity of this Person secret. God sought to tell the world what was accomplished through the sacrifice and resurrection of this Person. Though People attempt to keep this Person out of sight, He is truly a Person of Interest.
JESUS OF NAZARETH — There was nothing of particular interest about this man when we first meet Him as an adult, nothing to make Him stand out. Isaiah would say of Him,
“He grew up before [the LORD] like a young plant,
and like a root out of dry ground;
He had no form or majesty that we should look at Him,
and no beauty that we should desire Him.
He was despised and rejected by men,
a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief;
and as one from whom men hide their faces
He was despised, and we esteemed Him not.”
[ISAIAH 53:2-3]
Jesus of Nazareth had an unremarkable childhood. There was nothing of special interest about Him, and nothing recorded in the divine record of those early years other than a brief vignette of a time when His parents went up to Jerusalem and left the lad behind. If we were able to see a portrait of the young man, he would be ordinary, pedestrian. His life would be described as mundane, perhaps even banal. People would have taken no notice of Him for more than thirty years. Even His siblings were not impressed with Him, considering Him to be simply a family fixture.
Don’t misunderstand, his siblings weren’t particularly enamoured of this man. On one occasion, Jesus had placed what many of those following Him considered to be an impossible demand. They, like so many in this day, wanted acceptance by the Father, but weren’t particularly willing to expend their own comfort in order to please God. After this, Jesus became a marked man. The religious leadership began to seriously plot His death, believing that they could count on the people supporting them in killing this prophet who was growing increasingly despised.
The account to which I invite us to turn our attention is found in John’s Gospel. “After this Jesus went about in Galilee. He would not go about in Judea, because the Jews were seeking to kill him. Now the Jews’ Feast of Booths was at hand. So his brothers said to him, ‘Leave here and go to Judea, that your disciples also may see the works you are doing. For no one works in secret if he seeks to be known openly. If you do these things, show yourself to the world.’ For not even his brothers believed in him” [JOHN 7:1-5].
His brothers were brutally sarcastic in their ridicule of their half-brother Jesus. They were sophisticated, confident, Jewish men who wanted to be accepted by the powerful. Like the Karens and the Chads of this world today, they wanted to be on-board with those who were seen as leaders. They were wrong, but my oh my, were they ever confident. On another occasion, Jesus was incredibly busy, so busy that He didn’t even have time to eat. Listen, as Peter relates through what Mark has written in his gospel, informing us of the way in which Jesus’ family viewed Him. “[Jesus] went home, and the crowd gathered again, so that they could not even eat. And when His family heard it, they went out to seize Him, for they were saying, ‘He is out of his mind’” [MARK 3:20-21]. His family was convinced that Jesus was mad—stark staring mad, utterly insane. They were certain that they had to take Him captive and cart Him home for His own good!
Even Mary appears to have been caught up in this madness! Mary! This was the woman who knew she was chosen by God to bear His Son into the world. This was the same Mary who had humbly accepted the almost impossible assignment delivered to her by the angel Gabriel. This same Mary had witnessed the shepherds arrive with the startling message of an angel chorus announcing the birth of her Son. This same Mary had received the Magi who were bearing such precious gifts. She had fled in terror when Herod was determined to kill her baby. This same Mary who had witnessed so much that pointed to the divine nature of this child now seems convinced that her Son was insane.
Doesn’t it seem that the passage of time dulls our memory more than we might have thought possible? Honestly, do you remember the day you confessed Christ? Can you actually recall the sense of freedom associated with transformation that you experienced? Can you honestly say that since that glorious day when you first believed that you’ve never questioned what happened? Never doubted His grace? Never wondered if perhaps you were somehow deceived? Time dulls the memory, and without God’s intervention in our lives from time-to-time, we tend to forget what happened.
Something like that may have been taking place in Mary’s life. There appears to have been a momentary lapse of her faith, a moment when her confidence was shaken. You see, your outlook on Christ and your service to Him is either strengthened or degraded through the relationships you cultivate in your life. Your friendships, your associations, determine in no small measure how effective you will be in your service before the Lord. If you associate with negative people, you will grow more negative in your outlook on life. If you associate with godly people, you will reveal a more godly character. As the Wise Man has said,
“Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise,
but the companion of fools will suffer harm.”
[PROVERBS 13:20]
Mary’s children were united in opposition to her eldest Son. It is highly likely that they frequently spoke ill of Him. And Jesus wasn’t acting like everyone else! He was devoting Himself to telling everyone who would listen of their need to look to God as their Father. He was dedicated to preaching, and not to making money. In time, Mary began to think as her children were thinking. Why couldn’t Jesus be more like other people? Why couldn’t He be just a little more thoughtful, showing a little more attention to His mother to allay her fears for Him.
Throughout the years of my service before the Lord, I’ve had people complain, “Why can’t you be more like other preachers? Why can’t you be more flexible? Why can’t you…” and they always have a question of why I can’t adjust my character to fit an ideal they hold. My normal response is, “Then I wouldn’t be the man who first attracted you to the message of Christ that I present.” If I am who you want me to be, then I can’t be who I am. That same concept holds with the Master. If He is what we want Him to be, then He can’t be the Saviour we need. That was the very situation Mary was facing.
You may recall the harsh challenge Jesus delivered to His followers. Jesus warned, “Woe to you, when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets” [LUKE 6:26]. You may be certain that Jesus of Nazareth wasn’t burdened with the problem of people speaking well of Him.
We need but recall an incident that occurred when Jesus returned to Nazareth following His temptation by Satan. The wicked one had sought to lead Jesus to circumvent that reason for His coming to earth, but sustained by the Spirit of the Living God, Jesus did not succumb to Satan’s inducements. Here’s the account as recorded by Doctor Luke. “Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and a report about him went out through all the surrounding country. And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all.
“And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read. And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written,
‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives
and recovering of sight to the blind,
to set at liberty those who are oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.’
“And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, ‘Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.’ And all spoke well of him and marveled at the gracious words that were coming from his mouth. And they said, ‘Is not this Joseph’s son?’ And he said to them, ‘Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, “‘Physician, heal yourself.” What we have heard you did at Capernaum, do here in your hometown as well.”’ And he said, ‘Truly, I say to you, no prophet is acceptable in his hometown. But in truth, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heavens were shut up three years and six months, and a great famine came over all the land, and Elijah was sent to none of them but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.’ When they heard these things, all in the synagogue were filled with wrath. And they rose up and drove him out of the town and brought him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they could throw him down the cliff” [LUKE 4:14-29].
You and I are just as easily angered when we don’t hear what we want to hear. We may not explode in a murderous rage, but we seethe; and while we are seething, we will dismiss the speaker because we aren’t hearing what really matters to us. If they won’t give us credit for how we see ourselves, if they refuse to acknowledge how important we are, then we’ll have nothing to do with them.
You see, Jesus was readily accepted so long as those hearing what He said were pleased because He fulfilled their expectations. However, I note that Jesus had a disconcerting habit of refusing to stop speaking after first gaining a hearing. In this case, “All spoke well of Him and marvelled at the gracious words coming from His mouth.” However, Jesus then exposed their perfidy, perfidy of which they were not even aware! They were hoping that Jesus would do something great for them, rather than realising that He would be calling them to loyalty to God.
Haven’t I witnessed the attempts to co-opt the preacher! Yes, I have; yes, I have! I was approached by a denominational leader on one occasion and asked if I would consider moving to another congregation that was searching for a pastor at that particular time. The congregation he mentioned was noted as an exceptionally wealthy assembly, situated in one of the richest communities in British Columbia. Having raised the possibility of my moving to this particular congregation, the denominational leader abruptly paused before saying, “On second thought, you have no respect for money. It simply wouldn’t work for you to go there.” I took his words as a compliment. Candidly, I was pleased that he recognised me as someone who wouldn’t be silenced by the possibility that a wealthy donor might cease giving. I do not oppose wealth, but I assuredly oppose using one’s wealth to co-opt the work of God.
I know there are some who believe I should not speak harshly about men such as these I’ve mentioned. However, I learned from another Baptist named John that those who are religious without concern for the glory of God are vipers. And John was but echoing the Lord Who appointed him to his ministry. Didn’t Jesus excoriate the religious elite when He said, “You brood of vipers! How can you speak good, when you are evil” [MATTHEW 12:33]? Jesus continued to refer to these pious frauds as serpents and vipers until the end of His time in the Judean countryside [see MATTHEW 23:33, 37]. Snakes! That is what turncoats such as these religious frauds are!
On yet another occasion, a denominational leader spoke with me, saying, “Michael, you could pastor any of our largest churches if you’d just soften your message. Stop being so blunt in your sermons.” My response in that instance was to remind him, “But if I changed my message, I wouldn’t be the man who attracted your attention in the first place.” Later, in that same conversation, I assured that leader that I was not for sale. I truly wasn’t interested in changing my message to accommodate his sensitive feelings. We reach a certain age where such change is simply no longer possible. That resistance to change comes in great measure as result of life itself. I’ve seen too much compromise to ever think that compromise in the message of Christ can yield a positive result.
I’m not Jesus, and I have no particular stature among learned preachers who declaim the message of life from polished pulpits. Moreover, I know that if I hold to the Faith of Christ the Lord I will receive opposition, and the strongest opposition will come from those who purport to stand for Christ, claiming to want just a little compromise with the world so they can have a measure of what they claim to be peace. I hold that peace at any price is too high a price for anyone who seeks to honour Christ.
Jesus warned His followers, “Woe to you, when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets” [LUKE 6:26]. It is easy to praise the individual who makes you feel good about yourself; but that one who insists that God expects you to live without excuse will inevitably irritate you. None of us enjoy hearing that we fall short of the glory of God. We want to think well of ourselves, and honesty doesn’t permit us to do so.
Jesus also cautioned those who are known as His disciples, “A person’s enemies will be those of his own household” [MATTHEW 10:36]. It is precisely those who mean the most to us that wound us the deepest. It is a parent, or a sibling, or a fellow worshipper who will leave us shattered to the greatest degree.
And James, the half-brother of our Lord, has cautioned those who read what he has written, “Adulterers, do you not know that friendship with the world means hostility toward God? So whoever decides to be the world’s friend makes himself God’s enemy” [JAMES 4:4 NET BIBLE].
I have recited the words Jesus spoke to His disciples as He prepared them for His departure from this earth. Surely, the words Jesus spoke at that time apply to the one who seeks to walk with Him, facing opposition even from those who are supposed to be a friend to the one standing with the Master.
Jesus warned, “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me” [JOHN 15:18-21].
People of God, I urge you to stand with Christ. Know that religious people who are attempting to wear the livery of the Faith of Christ the Lord while identifying with the world are going to oppose you. They oppose you because your very presence strips away the masque they attempt to wear in order to deceive the unwary. Look to Christ and follow Him. Paul has taught, “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ” [1 CORINTHIANS 11:1]. Pray for me that as your pastor I will indeed follow Christ, and then ensure that you are following one who is following Christ. Don’t fall for the charade of following one who seeks to appease the world by doing what pleases the world.
DYING AS MAN, SACRIFICING AS GOD — Jesus, the Christ, is a divine mystery. He is man—fully man, and He is God. Jesus of Nazareth is the unique God-man. There has never been another like Him, and there shall never be another like Him. Some weeks past I received a call from a man who chose not to identify himself. He said he was struggling with a question and wondered if I could resolve the issue for him.
The man was a Jehovah’s Witness, though he didn’t want to admit that he held to that peculiar religion. He wondered how the Eternal God could have an Eternal Son. Candidly, I had no time for sophistry and told him so. He was incensed and immediately phoned back to berate me for being rude. I was actually restrained since my Saviour has instructed me to avoid giving what is holy to dogs. Do you remember Jesus’ admonition, “Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you” [MATTHEW 7:6].
The issue we should settle, then, is whether the Bible presents Jesus as God. While I haven’t time in this message to present the full account, there are portions of the Word which speak clearly to the Person of Jesus as very God. One such place that is found in the writing of the Apostle to the Gentiles is found in the Letter to Roman Christians. In ROMANS 9:3-5, we read, “I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh. They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen.”
Did you catch what Paul has written of the Israelites? “From their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all.” According to what the Apostle has written, the Christ is “God over all.” Paul taught that the Christ is God over all. We come to Jesus as very God in human flesh. We do not come to Him as a mere mortal, as a great teacher or as a good men. Either Jesus is God over all, or He is not good. Either Jesus is God over all, or we cannot trust anything that He says. Hence, He cannot be a great teacher if what He teaches is suspect. And if He has lied about Who He is, then everything that He says is suspect.
Elsewhere, Paul writes, “The grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works” [TITUS 2:11-14].
In this passage we see that the Apostle speaks of Jesus as “our great God and Saviour.” We have no difficulty speaking of Jesus as our Saviour. Here the Apostle emphasises that the One for Whom we now wait is as well “our great God.” Again, the Apostle to the Gentiles is claiming that Jesus Christ is very God in human flesh. Without question, this is a bold assertion from the writing of the Apostle Paul.
Nor should we imagine that Paul is alone is recognising Jesus as very God in human flesh. As Peter begins his second letter to believing Jews scattered in the Diaspora, writes, “Simeon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ,
“To those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ:
“May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord” [2 PETER 1:1-2].
According to Peter’s assessment, we obtain a faith which enjoys equal standing with the Apostles through “the righteousness of our God and Saviour Jesus Christ.” It is obvious to the unbiased reader that the Apostle Peter recognised Jesus Christ as our God and Saviour! There is a clear theme developing here: Our Lord, Jesus Who is the Christ, is very God in human flesh.
And these statements of His divine nature don’t begin to speak of His Person as He did. Throughout the Gospels, we see Jesus identified as God on multiple occasions. Both in what He said and in what those learned Jewish scholars understood Him to have said, Jesus was presented as God. He did not claim to be a demigod, such as Hercules or one of the multiple offspring said to have come from the union of Greeks gods and women who were seduced or raped by those beings.
As an example, you may recall the account of an interaction that took place between Jesus and Jewish leaders during one Feast of Dedication. Controversy swirled about Jesus, some of the people saying that He was insane, and other people wondering whether He was speaking the truth. This particular event took place in Jerusalem during winter. Jesus was at that time walking in the colonnade of Solomon when John informs us that the Jews gathered around Him and demanded of Him, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.” At this, Jesus answered His interlocutors, “I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name bear witness about me, but you do not believe because you are not among my sheep. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one” [JOHN 10:24-30].
This may seem like pretty innocuous stuff. Certainly, for most of us today, there was nothing said that would make us furious. However, that was not the case for the people who heard Jesus speak at that time. Therefore, we read, “The Jews picked up stones again to stone him” [JOHN 10:31]. To this obvious hostile action, Jesus asked them, “I have shown you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you going to stone me” [JOHN 10:32]?
No doubt you will see this as a perfectly reasonable and reasoned answer to the threat these religious people were posing to Jesus. What is essential for us at this time is to note the answer these religious people gave. They responded to Jesus’ query, “It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God” [JOHN 10:33]. They immediately understood that Jesus was making the claim of personal divinity. Jesus was openly asserting that He was God, and the Jewish scholars understood very well what He was saying!
What happened at that time mirrored an earlier event. It was also during a feast, and Jesus was also in Jerusalem at that time. As He walked past the pool known as Bethesda, Jesus observed multiple blind, lame, and paralysed people lying there. Many people held the belief that an angel came down intermittently in order to move the waters. In this popular mythology, it was thought that the first person to get into the water after the angel stirred it up would be healed of whatever ailment they suffered.
Among those present on this particular day was man who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. In desperation, this man had managed time and again to make his way to the pool in hopes that the angel might move the waters at just the right time so that he might be healed. Jesus stopped to speak to this particular man, asking him the simple question, “Do you want to be healed?”
The question was simple enough, but this man’s mind was fixed on his own solution to his situation. He responded, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me” [JOHN 5:7]. This man is focused on finding someone to wait with him, picking him up and taking him to the pool at just the right time! Jesus, however, was present right then and ready to act. Thus, we see Jesus say to this man, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk” [JOHN 5:8]. We don’t know whether it was the authority the man heard in Jesus’ voice or whether he felt the strengthening of his muscles, what we do know is what we read in the Word of God. “At once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked” [JOHN 5:9].
To the Jewish scholars, the great tragedy was that all this took place on the Sabbath. They were incensed that something like this could happen on one of their holy days! How could anyone heal someone on a Sabbath? How could anyone dare carry his mat on a Sabbath? The man had likely crawled them before the sun dawned and would remain there until dark so he wouldn’t violate the Sabbath. And here he was walking!
It is not unlike one church that I briefly pastored in which the leading lights were horrified that I suggested a church picnic. “You mean on a Sunday?” they exclaimed. “You mean with races and fun?” I mean, after all, the picnic would be on a Sunday, and they held that even reading the comics on a Sunday was sinful! Any activity that caused a participant to laugh was seen as unholy, dishonouring to God. In this pericope we read, “So the Jews said to the man who had been healed, ‘It is the Sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to take up your bed.’ But he answered them, ‘The man who healed me, that man said to me, “Take up your bed, and walk.”’ They asked him, ‘Who is the man who said to you, “Take up your bed and walk”’ [JOHN 5:10-12]?
We have this corollary appended. The offended Jews discovered that it was Jesus Who had healed the man, and they set about to make life miserable for this terrible individual who would not honour their tradition. “This was why the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath. But Jesus answered them, ‘My Father is working until now, and I am working’” [JOHN 5:16-17].
Take note of the response of the religious elite when Jesus said this. John wrote, “This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God” [JOHN 5:18]. They understood very well what Jesus said. Jesus clearly identified Himself to be God in human flesh.
Listen to one other instance where Jesus claimed to be divine. As the assembled religious leaders questioned Jesus before delivering Him over to be crucified, they demanded, “If you are the Messiah, tell us.”
But he told them, “If I tell you, you won’t believe me, and if I ask you a question, you won’t answer me. But from now on the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the mighty God.” What Jesus said generated an angry response from these men.
They pointedly demanded of Jesus, “Are you, then, the Son of God?”
Take special note of Jesus’ answer. “You said it, I AM.”
It isn’t especially obvious in any of our representative English translations, but the Master was claiming to be Yahweh, the very God Whom these religious leaders claimed they worshipped. In a rage, and perhaps to cover their embarrassment, they blustered, “Why do we need any more testimony? We have heard it ourselves from his own mouth” [LUKE 22:67-71 ISV]! The religious leaders understood without doubt that Jesus was laying claim to be, not a demigod, but the True and Living God! Quite simply, Jesus was claiming to be God. His answer was short and to the point when the religious leaders asked, “Are you the Son of God?” Jesus answered, “Yes, I am.”
Make no mistake, the death of Jesus was a sacrifice of God’s own Son for fallen humanity. The infinite God presented His own life as a sacrifice in the place of lost people. He exchanged Himself for us when we were helpless. This accords with the moving testimony of the Apostle Paul, who has written, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me” [GALATIANS 2:20].
EVIDENCE THAT AWES EVEN THE MOST JADED AMONG US — The account of Jesus of Nazareth that we have received in the Word of God cannot help but awe even the most jaded among us. While it is possible that a person might refuse to accept what is written of this One, they cannot deny that His very existence has had an impact on our world. Time is divided by His presence, so that we speak of BC and of AD—“Before Christ” and “Anno Domini,” meaning “Year of Our Lord.”
And how should the Living God communicate His love to us? Perhaps God could take out a television ad, or post an ad on Facebook? But, there would be broken people controlling those media who would distort what was said; they’d feel the need to jazz up the message in order to give it some zip. Worse still, there are many people in our world who don’t have a television or a computer, or if they have those conveniences they don’t trust the message that are displayed on the screens since we have all be lied to so much.
Perhaps the Lord could write the message in bold, bright letters across the sky? However, there are people that are blind, and many more who would refuse to believe even if the message was penned in brilliant hues across the azure skies.
What God has done is something that no one can miss if they are the least bit prescient. The Living God has delivered His message of love in the written Word so that not only those who read what has been written know of His love, but those who hear as that Word is read in their presence will assuredly know that the Lord loves them. His message of love points mankind to look to Jesus, the Son of God. The message of love that God has sent explains that we are incapable of making ourselves acceptable to Him. We are sinners, contaminated from birth by a spiritual virus that ensures that we must all die. Worse still, we are dead in our trespasses and sins, unable to know God through our own efforts. We need someone to stir us to life so that we can receive the message that God delivers.
God has graciously sent His Holy Spirit, working through the lives of those who have received Christ as Master over life, so that everyone might know that God is love. You, if you are a follower of the Christ, have become a living letter revealing the love of God to those who know you. As you speak to those with whom you work and with those of your own household, they will understand the reality of life that now lives in you. This is the intent of Peter’s words when he writes, “Who will harm you if you are devoted to doing what is good? But even if you should suffer for doing what is right, you are blessed. ‘Never be afraid of their threats, and never get upset. Instead, exalt the Messiah’ as Lord in your lives. Always be prepared to give a defense to everyone who asks you to explain the hope you have” [1 PETER 3:13-15 ISV]. When you are asked, point those asking to Jesus, the Person of Interest who always saves.
This provides me the opportunity to ask if you are saved. Have you yielded your life to the reign of the Risen Son of God? Do you confess Him as Master over your life? Do you believe with your heart that He died because of your broken condition and that He has been raised to life? If you have not believed this truth, why have you hesitated? You know that He is the Saviour of all who look to Him, to all who receive Him as Master over life. You know that Jesus, the Son of God, died because of your sin and that He was raised in order to declare you just before the Father Who is the True and Living God. Have you never heard the promise of God which is delivered to you so that you may be declared righteous and holy in His presence?
God offers life to all who will receive Jesus as Master over life. God promises, “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved” [ROMANS 10:9-10]. That promise is made even more certain, if such is possible, when speaking through the Apostle Paul the Spirit of God reaches back to cite the words of an ancient prophet to promise, “Everyone who calls on the Name of the Lord shall be saved” [ROMANS 10:13].
That is the invitation we extend to all who will receive the call—“Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved” [ACTS 16:31a]. Believing that Jesus died because of you and that He raised for you, God will forgive all your sin. Amen.
[1] Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2016. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
