Good Friday - 2005
How many of you have heard of Marburg Fever?
• Marburg fever is a virus very similar to the Ebola virus
• There is presently an outbreak in Angola
• It is called Marburg fever after three researchers in the German city of Marburg were infected by imported green monkeys from the Congo
• The disease has laid dormant since 1967
• The virus is passed on by contact with bodily fluids and the symptoms include high fever, severe diarrhea, vomiting, and internal bleeding
• There is no vaccine or cure and the mortality rate is 90%
• So it’s a very scary proposition
As scary as this virus is, there is a virus that has infected the human race and the mortality rate for this virus is 100%
• What is this virus? Sin
• Sin is the virus that has infected the whole human race – there is no human cure for it and there is no vaccine
• Everyone will eventually die from this disease
• However there is Good News for the human race, but that Good News is tempered by bad news, because what is good for us means bad news for someone else
How many of you have seen the movie, “The Passion of the Christ”?
• In the movie we see a very graphic depiction of the gruesome death Jesus Christ suffered
• This is the Bad News part of the story
• But it is also the most unbelievable part of the whole story. Jesus did not need to die, he was not guilty of any crime. He was innocent
• He didn’t go to that cross because of something He had done. He went to that cross for something we have done
So what is it that we have done that caused the death of Jesus?
• We have sinned!
Need to take a time out! While we answer the question, what exactly is a sin?
• This is what the Bible tells us - 1 John 3:4 (NCV) 4 The person who sins breaks God’s law. Yes, sin is living against God’s law.
• Usually when someone breaks the law, someone gets hurt
• Right now in Iraq we see the results of “lawlessness” people are getting hurt all over the place as a result of people’s disregard for the law – no regard for people’s lives, no regard for people’s property, it’s anarchy over there
• Laws are usually put in place to govern our behavior – not nice to go around thumping people or stealing their new plasma TV set
• God too has laws. His laws are put in place to govern our behavior and inform us how we are to love Him and love our fellowman
Now we are going to see how honest you are! Anyone here who has not broken a law in some way…..got a speeding ticket, yelled at your husband/wife/brother/sister; told a little white lie? Come on, be honest now
• So if we have committed at least one sin we have all broken the law, we are criminals, or in Biblical terminology “sinners”. Sinners are simply criminals – guilty of breaking God’s Law
• So now we know what a sin is? It’s a crime against God’s law
• Just to show you that we are in good company or perhaps “bad” company notice what the Bible tells us
• Romans 3:23 (NLT) For all have sinned; all fall short of God’s glorious standard.
• I hate to break the news to you this way, but in God’s eyes we are all criminals
• Fortunately for us that’s not the end of the story
End of time out - Back to our story because the Bad news is followed by Good News
• Now it wasn’t supposed to be this way. God did not intend for us to end up a bunch of criminals
• That was our choice and a story for another time. We have all heard of Adam and Eve and the Garden of Eden
• Things were going along fine between God and Adam and Eve until they disobeyed God, ate that apple and became criminals
• But this was not God’s original intention. His original intention for mankind was for us to be in a close personal relationship with Him
• By sinning we basically told God to butt out of our lives so He has honored that choice and let us continue to live as we determine
• And we have to admit we haven’t done too good a job at it – just read the daily newspapers
However, even though we are criminals or sinners, God does not love us any less anymore than we stop loving our kids when they do something wrong. He still wants a close personal relationship with every human being
• And so He has a plan “B” just like “The Practice”
• And this is where we get back to the Good News
• When you commit a crime, someone has to pay the penalty – if you knock off someone’s plasma TV and you get caught, you going to spend time in jail
• With God its no different – He is a holy God and requires a penalty be paid and its a tough penalty – the death penalty
• The Bible tells us Romans 6:23 (NCV) 23 When people sin, they earn what sin pays—death.
• God is serious about sin – because He wants people who are “loving”
• But fortunately for us this is not how the story ends because the verse goes on to say
• But God gives us a free gift—life forever in Christ Jesus our Lord.
• You see God is tough on sin, but He is merciful and loving in dealing with sinners
• The message of Christianity is “good news” for sinners
• As the angels who appeared to the Shepherds at Jesus’ birth said, Luke 2:10 (NLT) “Don’t be afraid!” he said. “I bring you good news of great joy for everyone!
• And this is the incredible part of the story. This is how the bad news becomes good new for sinners
• instead of God requiring us to pay the penalty for our sins, He decides to do it for us by allowing Jesus Christ to pay it instead – an innocent man, Jesus, dying for the us, the guilty
• And what we saw so graphically depicted in the movie, the Passion of the Christ, is the cumulative sins of the world being heaped on the shoulders of Jesus Christ
• Can you imagine every foul thought, every evil deed, all the accumulated sins of human history dumped on the innocent shoulders of Jesus Christ so man’s relationship with God could be restored
• And through that incredible sacrifice the sins of the whole world are washed away in His blood
• The Bible talks about the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! John 1:29 (NLT)
• And it was not something He did reluctantly. He did it willingly, He did it lovingly
• Hebrews 12:2 (NKJV)2 looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
• This is how much God loves us. It wasn’t a burden, It wasn’t a chore, it just wasn’t done out of duty. It was done purely and simply out of love
• John 3:16 (NCV)16 “God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son so that whoever believes in him may not be lost, but have eternal life
• God doesn’t want anyone to go to hell. And there is no need for anyone to go there. The only one’s who end up going to hell are those who refuse to accept Jesus’ death on their behalf
• As one man put it, Heaven is populated with forgiven sinners and hell is populated with forgiven sinners
• The difference is some will not accept Jesus’ death on our behalf
• All we need to do is admit that it was our sins that put Jesus on the cross
• Mel Gibson’s comment – His hand was the one holding the nail in the movie. He wanted it there to show the world that He too had a part in Jesus being there on that cross
• Anyone who is willing to accept Jesus Christ as their personal Savior is going to have their sins forgiven and will one day live in eternity with this great God who has literally loved us to death
• That is the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. What is bad news for Jesus becomes good news for us
• It is because of what happened on that dreadful day that you and I sit here today as forgiven sinners, as children of God who have been welcomed back into His family
• The virus of sin has been eliminated by the blood of Jesus Christ. Anyone who accepts that fact will live forever with this God of love
• The sad part about the Marburg virus is that the villagers who don’t understand the disease drive away the health workers in protective “astronaut” suits who come to take away the infected because once they go into the hospital they never return
• And so the fever spreads
• Unfortunately this is too often the response of sinners. They drive away or run away from the only One who can save them
• If we want to be saved from the virus of sin, we have to go to the only one who can save us, Jesus Christ
