Pressures Need Not Defeat Us
Easter Psalm 73:1-28 Matthew 27:62-- 28:20
Is pressure something good or something bad. Too little pressure and you can be stuck on the freeway going nowhere because of four flat tires. Too much pressure and you can go flying off the freeway out of control from an exploding tire. Whether pressure is good or bad all depends on how, where, when, and why the pressure is released.
There were pressures of all kinds hanging around after the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Mary was dealing with the pressures of grief over the death of her son. There were the pressures of confusion and unemployment for Matthew the former tax collector who had left his job years ago to become one of Jesus’ disciples, and now Jesus is gone and Matt does not have a job.
There were the pressures of where do we go from here, for we believed God was going to make a way and God did not come through as we expected.
Pressures of life. We all have them don’t we. Doesn’t it hurt when somebody close to us is slipping away and we can’t do anything. Doesn’t the pain run deep when a loved one dies. Isn’t it hard when you think your job is secure only to have it snatched away from you through no fault of your own. There’s an aching pain left inside when you don’t get the position you believed should have come to you. The pressures of life can wear us down.
The bad thing about pressures is that instead of leading us to God, they often lead us to worrying. How many of us have worried about things that got us down, but now on the other side, we think that was just a waste of my time. But come the next pressure, we’re back to worrying again.
The last week of Jesus’ life on earth was the most pressure filled of all. On Sunday, he was riding high as king on a donkey with people shouting, "Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord." By Thursday he was hanging high as a criminal on a cross with the people shouting "If he is the Son of God, then let him come down from the cross so that we will believe in him."
Between Monday and Wednesday, Jesus had to love Judas, knowing that Judas was being two-faced and would betray him to be killed. That final night in the garden, he had the pressure of deciding "do I simply go back to heaven from where I came, I do I go on to the cross and into hell itself."
He suffered the pressure of God turning away from him because of all the sin we have and shall commit was piled upon him, as he cried out "My God, My God why have you forsaken me." He yielded His spirit into the hands of God as he cried out saying," Father, into your hands I commit my spirit It is finished."
When Jesus died on the cross, Satan thought the pressure on him would be gone. He thought the pressures on Jesus had ended Jesus’ mission in failure. Now Satan would rule this world without the fear of being cast out. The demonic spirits were probably giving each other high fives. When Jesus said "It is finished," they must of mistakenly thought he had said "I am finished."
Death notified Satan, " we’ve got Jesus down here in hell, but for some reason there’s some pressure down here building up that we haven’t felt before." Satan said, "keep me informed." Death notified Satan again, " Well Jesus is suffering in hell like none other because God has placed on him the sins of the world, and by the way the pressure I told you about since his arrival keeps on building."
Close to the third day Death notified Satan again, "Jesus has endured all the pain hell can offer and he’s going to the angelic spirits who were placed here before Noah time’s. He’s preaching a message to them about a victory he has conquered over you , over hell, and over me. I think you better get down here, Jesus looks like he’s intending on leaving. There’s not much I can do to stop him. The Pressure is too great. Oh my goodness, it’s too late, he’s leaving hell, and he’s leaving death behind and he’s headed back into his body."
Satan said don’t worry I got his body sealed into a tomb with cement and rocks. He’ll suffocate in there. No one can live under that pressure. I’ve got a group of Roman soldiers on the outside ready to kill him again if necessary. So what if he rises from the dead, the pressures killed him once, we’ll get him again if need be."
No sooner than Satan got his report, another demon let him know. Don’t count on the cement rock keeping Jesus in the cave , "God has dispatched one of his angels and he’s thrown away the rock." Another one said, " don’t count on the soldiers helping us out, God sent an earthquake to shake them up a little, and every since they saw the power of the angel, they have been frozen stiff, scared to death to move."
Jesus may have said "it is finished", but the message of Easter is that those words, were not the last words of Jesus Christ. For the Bible goes on to say that on the third day, He rose from the dead. That spirit that had been trusted to the Father, came back into the body. That body went from cold and stiff to warm and flexible able to get up and walk around. But the body was changed.
Jesus did not need to have the stone moved away to get out. Before the angel came to remove it, Jesus had already walked right through the stone and came on out. The angel moved the stone not for Jesus to come out, but for the women to be able to go in. When the women and the disciples got there they did not find his body. Instead they saw the remnants of the resurrection power.
There were angels on the scene that told them to go back and let the world know Jesus is alive, and He has risen just like he said. The Spirit of God had spoken and Jesus was filled once again with awesome power.
The good news about the pressures we face in life today is, the same spirit that raised Jesus Christ from the dead wants to raise us up and above our pressures. If you feel like you don’t know if you can make it, and if you feel like the pressures around you are too great, then know that, the meaning of Easter is that God has provided power for you to be resurrected. You do not have to be defeated by pressures. Romans 8:11 And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.
How did Jesus get to the point of experiencing the power of God to handle the pressures he faced before the resurrection? By looking at the Scriptures, we kind find some principles for handling pressures.
Principle number one is to turn everything over to God. In the Amplified Version of the Bible, 1 Peter 5:6-7 reads, "Cast all your anxieties, all your worries, all your concerns once and for all on Him. For he cares for you." Let’s all say, "God cares about me."
Three observations about this passage, the first is that God is concerned about you. The word cares literally means to be concerned. God is concerned about your concerns. Too often we don’t want others to be concerned with what’s pressuring us. Ever had a friend ask "what’s wrong", and without thinking lie and say, "Oh nothing everything is all right." When in reality we may be at wit’s end. We can fool each other, but we cannot fool God. God is concerned about it because the pressure concerns us.
The second observation is that God is concerned about everything, not just the big things. Did you notice all the times word "all is used in this passage, all your anxieties, all your worries, all your concerns one and for all. There is something about us which causes us to think we can handle all kinds of pressures and keep it contained in some little box or corner of our lives.
Unfortunately others are sometimes forced to pay a terrible pain for our attempt to play God in our lives with the pressures we face. The pressure comes out in ways that we do not readily see. We may become less kind and considerate, more hostile and easily agitated, less loving and patient, and more abusive and hard to live with.
We make a big mistake in thinking there are some areas God is concerned about in my life, but the other areas God has just left me to handle on my own. Do you know why some of the pressures we face defeat us? It’s simple, we don’t ask for help. We don’t ask others, and we don’t even ask God. The reason we don’t ask is because we have pride and don’t want to humble ourselves and say, "God I need you to be in control of my life."
Some of us will fail a course in school before admitting we need to make a change. Some of us will let a marriage go to pieces before we even consider that we might be a big part of the problem. Some of us will make a fool of ourselves on our jobs before we admit we don’t know what we are doing. Some of us will let drugs and alcohol ruin our lives and the lives of those around us before we admit that we have a problem. All the while, the pressure is building.
Pride keeps us from declaring, " I can’t handle this by myself. God you’ve got to have control of my life We don’t like to admit that we need God or help. All of us men know what it’s like to be in the car and let pride take over when we’re lost. We will insist, we know where we are and that the next road ahead will confirm it, and be as lost as you can get. Don’t let pride rob you of the opportunity to have some of your pressures released. Jesus didn’t have any problem telling the world "I’m thirsty" as he was hanging on the cross.
Not only is God concerned about you, and not only is God concerned about everything, not just the big things, God wants your pressures now. Peter said to give them all to him once and for all. Get rid of them now. We come to church, and we say "Here are my pressures Lord, they’re yours. I have had it, and I can’t take it anymore. No sooner than the service is over ,we start asking God if we can have them back so that we might have something to worry about during the week.
By Monday, we have completely stolen back every pressure from God and boy they are whipping up on us. We then blame God for not doing something about them. The verse didn’t say turn your pressures over to Jesus on Sunday and steal them back before Monday. A modern day translation of the verse would say, "Give your pressures and cares over to God, and keep your hands in your pockets so that you can steal them and run away again.
The second principle in handling pressures is to understand your purpose in life. If we have a purpose in life, pressures cannot defeat us as easily. The greater your purpose, the greater the power you have in handling problems. For instance, I don’t know how fast you can run the fifty yard dash, but I do know must of us will run it faster if there is a pitbull coming after us than if there were a cha wa wa. The less purpose in life, the more easy it is for us to give and let go.
Jesus’ purpose was not to end up with the pressures of the cross, but to end up seated at the right hand of the throne of God. For The Scriptures tell us in Hebrews 12:2-3 Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
It’s the purpose you have for your life that will help you to hang tough under the pressures when they close in on you. My friends, like Jesus, we’ve got to look beyond what our immediate circumstances are and realize there is something else going on. Jesus didn’t go to the cross to have a pity party. He went to the cross in order to experience the resurrection so that we could be saved. God has a purpose for your life. Don’t try to always dodge the pressures that come. Determine that those pressures are going to help you develop a greater character and a closer walk with Jesus Christ.
This past week, I heard a person talking about the picture that’s carved out of Stone Mountain in Ga. It’s a magnificent picture of four men riding on horses carved in the stone. He said, "you know that picture was always in the stone. Nothing had to be added to the stone to make it a reality, instead some of the stone had to be taken away. God is able to use pressures to make us into something far more beautiful than we have been before.
If you know Jesus as your Savior God has placed some of the same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead inside of you. 2 Corinthians 4:7-9 states. "But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed."
Therefore we do not lose heart. Every child of God has a purpose. A few years ago I quoted Yvonne Sims in a sermon saying "purpose is not always for us to do something great, but sometimes its to help somebody else along the way."
Are you determined that before you allow your pressures to turn you away from God, you’d give up your right to life itself? We are not truly able to live free from the tyranny of our pressures, until we are free from the fear of dying. There is power available in the resurrection of Jesus Christ to overcome even the fear of the pressure of death. When our hope and confidence is in Jesus Christ, the Scriptures ask the question 1 Corinthians 15:55 "Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?"
The pressures of an oncoming death only caused Jesus to give out more love than He had given out before. One of the last things he gave was Himself. He told the disciples as they ate their last meal together, this bread is my body which is broken for you. This wine is my blood which is shed for you. Jesus gave His all in order for us to know the power available to us through His ressurrection.
If you want to discover the power for pressures in your life, quit taking shortcuts and start living for Jesus Christ. Invite him into your life to rule over the decisions you make. There is no pressure which needs to defeat you. Pressures are going to come and some will be here for a long time. Seek to please God in the way you handle pressures. Go the second mile if that’s what it takes. Obedience is the way to receive the power from God.
The way that Jesus handled the pressures of his last week resulted in the greatest power the world had ever known. He is now Lord of Lord and King of Kings. That same power is available to us for the pressures us. Our key is found in first knowing Jesus as our Lord and Saviorreceiving God’s a purpose for our lives, and deciding to glorify God through our obedience.
