OPEN: I once heard a man tell of WHY he entered the ministry. He said he entered the ministry because he was afraid of God.
Now granted, Scripture tells us we should fear God. Proverbs 9:10 tells us "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.” But THIS man’s fear of God bordered on terror.
His God was a stern, unloving deity with long flowing robes who sat in a judgment throne…
- waiting for him to make just one mistake
- waiting for him to sin
- waiting for him step out of line even just little bit
- so that He could… punish him or destroy him with a wave of His hand.
I. Now, this man’s view of God WAS based on Scripture.
Nahum wrote: “The LORD is a jealous and avenging God; the LORD takes vengeance and is filled with wrath. The LORD takes vengeance on his foes and maintains his wrath against his enemies.” Nahum 1:2
Paul wrote: “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.” 2 Corinthians 5:10
Jesus said: “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” Matthew 10:28
And the writer of Hebrews tells us: “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” Hebrews 10:31
Scripture tells us MUCH about the judgment of man - by God… and it’s not a pretty sight.
And so, this man’s (this preacher’s) life was focused on the potential of THAT judgment… his life was devoted to pleasing and appeasing His God, so that - just maybe - his good deeds would outweigh the wrong he’d done, or said, or thought.
This ultimately led him to do anything and everything he could… including entering the ministry, hoping that perhaps this act of contrition would soothe his God’s wrath.
But even as a preacher, his life was filled with despair and disappointment. Even this did not seem to satisfy the anger of his God.
QUESTION: Did you ever feel that God was angry with you? That somehow, you wouldn’t blame Him if He punished you? Hurt you? Destroyed you without a 2nd thought.
Do you know why we feel that way?
Because it’s true.
We DO deserve judgment.
We have “all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” Romans 3:23
We all deserve to face severe punishment for our actions and tho’ts
II. But then… we read things from Scripture like what we see in Isaiah 53
Look there with me: Isaiah 53:4-5
“But he was pierced for OUR transgressions, he was crushed for OUR iniquities; the punishment that brought US peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.
We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”
It was our transgressions
Our iniquities
Our sinfulness and selfishness and bitterness, lust, greed
That was why He was pierced
That was why He was crushed
That was why He was punished
We all like sheep had gone astray… had turned to our own way
And so God laid on him the iniquity of us all
Now… I’m sorry… but why on earth would God do such a thing????
It’s not right
It’s not fair
Jesus should NEVER have had to have endure the nightmare of the crucifixion
ILLUS: A Dr. Garland Bare told of what took place:
Scourging: A Jewish scourging was relatively "humane." It consisted of thirty-nine strokes of a whip, one short of the forty lashes permitted by Jewish law. A Roman scourging, on the other hand, was a masterpiece of brutality. The instrument used was a flagrum. This consisted of a short, leather-bound handle to which were attached long leather thongs. Embedded or tied into the tips of these thongs were hard objects, usually sheep knuckles, but also sometimes sharp stones, bone fragments, or glass. The one who wielded the whip was usually a hardened convict. The number of strokes was limited only to the whim of the one ordering the scourging.
In the process of scourging. the leather thongs, applied to the bared back of the victim, whipped around the body. The sharp objects gouged through the flesh exposing raw muscle, blood vessels, nerves, and even viscera. Eusebius of Caesarea, writing in the fourth century A.D., states that up to one-third of Roman scourging victims died of the scourging alone.
The Crucifixion:
When the death site was reached, the victim was stripped of his clothing and prepared for crucifixion. Metal spikes were driven through the area of the carpal bones at the base of the palms. The victim’s feet were placed one atop the other; a spike was driven through them into the main post.
The mechanism of death in crucifixion was usually suffocation. The crucified one’s weight was thrown forward in such a way that the pectoral muscles tightened around the chest to the point of making normal breathing impossible. In order to breathe. the victim had to lift his weight by pushing upward from the spike through his feet. When exhaustion and weakness made this impossible, death by suffocation followed. Sometimes the dying process required several days. If death needed to be hastened for any reason, the victim’s legs could be broken, as was done with the two felons crucified with Jesus. This made breathing impossible.
Kings and other important personages were crucified on a crux sublimis - high above the crowds. But most victims were crucified on a crux humilis; that is the offender’s feet were only a few inches above the ground. This gave easy access to those who wished to participate in further torture. It also gave opportunity for packs of wild dogs and jackals to tear at the victim’s flesh at night. Birds of prey participated in the torture by day. Ravens are recorded to have developed the gruesome habit of attacking and devouring the victim’s eyes.
ILLUS: A description of crucifixion has been passed down to us - purportedly by a soldier who had been witness to many of them:
"Of all the sounds in hell, none is more pitiable than those terrible cries through the silence of midnight, where crucified men hang in agony and cannot die while a breath of suffering remains."
III. And so I repeat: Why on earth, would God permit His son to endure such horror???
Why? (pause…)
Because He loved us.
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever would believe in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” John 3:16
God didn’t give His Son - to MERELY be a good teacher
Or an example of how we should live
Or to heal the sick and cast out demonic forces
Jesus did come to do all that
But those weren’t THE REASON God sent His son. God sent His son to become OUR substitute
To bear OUR punishment.
To DIE in OUR place.
As 1 John 4:9-10 says: This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
ILLUS: Jesus took our place. He took our punishment. His blood covered our sins.
One man, named Tom, told the story - when he was young, he loved crayons.
In fact he loved them so much he ate them.
His favorite color was red.
And at school, he would often nibble on his crayons and found that he could have fun on the playground by tapping a girl on the shoulder and saying "blah."
One day, he thought it would be clever to do this to his teacher. She was not impressed and sent him to the principal’s office. Principal asked why Tom had been sent to him.
He asked, so Tom showed him. Tom was spanked.
At home that evening, Tom’s father asked how school had gone that day. Tom almost told him, but he remembered his father’s warning that if he got a spanking at school, he’d get one at home. "Not much," he replied.
A little, later - same question, same answer.
Then his dad explained that the principal had called him and that he was very disappointed, not only that he had been naughty, but that he had lied. He sent Tom out to the garage. Dad came out with Ping-Pong paddle.
Tom’s dad told him to lean over…
And Tom could see his father bring the paddle back. "Whoosh", "swak" but no pain.
Again, the same. After third "swak" Tom realized what his father was doing - striking self.
Why would his earthly father do that??? Because his dad loved him… and wanted his son to understand what God had done for their sins.
Jesus took our place. He took our punishment. His blood covered our sins.
CLOSE: The problem, of course, is that some people have a hard time understanding that God could ever love them that much. Some people still struggle with the idea that God could ever overlook their sins and love them just the way they are.
That preacher I told you about at the beginning of the sermon… that was his problem. And he told of an incident in his life that changed how he saw God. He explained that one morning, he was shaving in his bathroom. His face covered with shaving cream and the mirror fogged with steam.
And – he said – suddenly that vision of God seated in judgment appeared before his eyes. He said it was as real as if he could reach out and touch Him. And with that vision, he was visited again with all his feelings of self-doubt and shame and reproach. The doubt and depression swept over him like a wave…
But then the vision changed.
This stern, forbidding God got up from His throne. His God didn’t say a thing… but instead, He stepped down to where the man stood and encircled him with His arms.
The man was so overwhelmed by the idea that God LOVED Him that he just stood there and wept.
Was his dream real? I don’t know…
But I do know, that God HAS stepped down from His throne… and He has done so to show us He loves us.
And just as the God in the man’s dream spread His arms to encircle the man in love.
So also, Jesus spread His arms on the cross to encircle us with His love.
Ephesians 2:3-5 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions— it is by grace you have been saved.
