Thank God I’m Forgiven!
I have spent many hours reading and studying different preachers and their styles. If you will allow me today, I would like to take an example from the greatest preaching manual there is, the Bible. In the pages of the Bible there is a preacher. His style was flawless. It reached across generations, across borders and across religious backgrounds. He executed his messages well and without fail, there was a response to his message. Hundreds of people followed him everywhere he went. His name was Jesus, the greatest preacher of all-time. Allow me if you would to make an attempt at recreating for you a message in the style that Jesus might Himself use if He were here preaching for us today. The majority of my message today will be taken from Mark 15:16-38 if you would like to follow along.
(Switch to first-person character)
Come on in, don’t be shy. Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Jehovah, Yahweh. Most of you call me God or Father. I know why you’re here. You have heard about the dilemma I was in and you wanted to hear the story for yourself. Well, allow me to explain the whole situation to you.
I was watching people the other day. I love to watch them. I love to listen in on their conversations. I love to know them more and try to get them to know me. I was watching people and that’s when the dilemma started. You wouldn’t believe the things I saw as I watched people the other day. I saw the most despicable acts of mankind being done as if they were normal behaviors. I watched as men turned their desires toward each other. I watched as everyone around them just allowed it to be considered normal or just as an alternate lifestyle. I watched as men and women broke up their families by divorcing each other because of “irreconcilable differences”. I watched as unwanted children went into foster homes and adoption agencies, because people don’t want to take responsibility anymore. Children live with dozens of other children as they just wait and see if someone, somewhere in the world will want to take them home. I watched as governments ruled over their people with a cruel hand and punished them harshly for no real good reason. I watched as kids began experimenting a little too early. The result was teenage pregnancy on the rise within the culture. I watched as one man shot a man for cutting him off in traffic. Murder runs rampant in many cities. I watched as people began experimenting with different forms of drugs in order to find a high or some sort of spiritual place. I watched as people looked around the world for a god to believe in. Some sought out weird forms of gods. Some sought to reject the idea of Me or gods all together. They want to be completely free from what they consider to be just a bunch of rules given to them by a god. I watched as hopelessness rose in many people’s souls. They looked everywhere for fulfillment in life. They looked to their jobs, their careers, their spouses, their children, alcohol, drugs and other forms of self-indulgence. Yet, they couldn’t find fulfillment in any of those things. The result, suicide is on the rise in nearly every culture, especially among teens. I watched as children, little girls are sold as sex slaves so that their parents can make money to live a better life. My anger burned inside of me. I was disgusted at what I saw in my creation. You see I have to be just. It is in my nature. When someone sins, it is required of me to find someone to pay for that sin. In order to restore the relationship between me and my creation, someone has to pay the price. I looked around at all the terrible things that were happening in my world and do you know what I thought to myself? I thought about how much I loved each and every single one of those people. I love the teen who is pregnant. I love the murderer. I love the alcoholic. I love the worst of the worst. I love every color. I love every race. I looked at them and I loved them all. My feelings of love and passion for all people runs deeper than anyone realizes. Because I loved them so much, I wanted to find a way to forgive them for these sins that they had committed. This is where my dilemma begins. How can I be a just God and at the same time justify my creation and provide for them forgiveness.
A long time ago before you were probably around, I had a covenant with the Israelite people. They were my people. I loved them and they were my children. I guided them out of Egypt. I led them through the wilderness. I established laws with them and a relationship with them. I gave them a beautiful land flowing with milk and honey. All I expected them to do was obey me and keep the commandments I had given them. They chose to be a rebellious people though. Because I knew they were going to rebel I needed to set up a system that would restore the relationship between me and my people. So I allowed them to make sacrifices to me that would reconcile our relationship. The biggest day of sacrifice was held on the Day of Atonement, otherwise known as Yom Kippur. It would take place on the 10th day of the month of Tishri, which falls between September and October depending upon the year. It is a day that I designed to cover over the sins of my people for the previous year. The day was a complete 25 hour fast for my people. On that day my people would come from all over the land to worship in my Temple. The high priest would choose two goats. One goat would be a scapegoat and sent into the wilderness alone while the other would be the sin offering for the people. The high priest would slaughter the goat for the offering and take its blood into the Holy of Holies. He was to then sprinkle the blood on the atonement cover. When this happened whatever sins my people had were atoned for, covered over for the previous year. This is the system that I established with my people in order to reconcile them to me. This system was temporary though. It wasn’t a perfect system. I was going to develop a plan that was permanent; a plan for all people for all time.
I knew all of this was going to happen before I even created the world. Before my people even sinned I knew that I was going to have to do more than just a yearly sacrifice. This is when my dilemma got sticky. About the time I was thinking all of these things through in my head my son came to me. He asked me what was going on and what I had been thinking about. So I told him all that I just told you. I explained to him that before these people were even made, someone was going to have to pay for their sins, for all people everywhere. If I was going to have a relationship with these people, then someone must pay the penalty for the wrongs done so that there could be reconciliation. When someone sins or makes a mistake, it separates me from them. So I told him that I needed a way to bring mankind back to myself. This is when things got very difficult for me. My son looked at me and said, “I’ll do it”. He said, “I’ll be their sacrifice. I’ll take the punishment for them. If you need someone to blame for all the wrong they have done, blame me. Take your anger and wrath toward them out on me.”
Let me ask you a question. What would you say to your son or daughter who said they would like to take the electric chair in place of a murderer? What would you say to your son or daughter who wanted to go to prison in place of a child molester? What would you say if they wanted to die in place of the worlds’ worst terrorist? What would you say to them?
Now you understand my predicament. However, since I just but want to justify my creation at the same time, I decided to allow my son, my only son, to take their place. This was the best way. That was a sad, dark day. I remember it very well. I remember when they came for him. He was praying with a few of his closest friends in a garden when they appeared. 600 of them came with clubs and spears in the middle of the night. They dragged him away to the court to be judged by men who called themselves “My people”. The process was long; they had to go back and forth between Herod and Pilate. Finally, they got Pilate to give in and condemn my son to be crucified. Before he would be crucified, the Roman soldiers took him to a room to whip him first. Have you ever seen your child go through something painful but you weren’t able to do anything about it? I watched as these men brought whips down across the back of my son. They chained his hands to a post. They pulled his clothes off to reveal his bare skin. They brought the whip down across his back and side countless times. The pieces on the whip tore apart his back. They dug deep and ripped pieces of his muscle to shreds. They beat him so long and so cruelly that his flesh was hanging off of his body. Most of their prisoners didn’t even make it to the cross because of the brutal flogging. When they were done whipping him they led him away to another room where they harassed my son verbally and physically. I was there as they spit on his face and laughed at him. They put a purple robe on him to mock him as the King of the Jews. They wove together a crown of thorns to put on his head. The crown was extremely painful. I witnessed the soldiers as they beat the thorns deep into my sons skull with a rod. Blood splattered on the wall behind him and on the floor beneath him. The thorns pushed deep into his skull. Then I watched as a soldier rolled up his hand and punched my son right in the mouth. They punched him repeatedly and beat him physically. Then to add insult to injury they bowed before him on their knees and paid homage to him by saying, “Hail, King of the Jews”. By this time the purple robed had bonded to the drying blood. That’s when they stood him up and ripped off the purple robe. The blood and open wounds had bonded to the robe. When they tore it off of him, it reopened all of his wounds and once again, blood flowed down his broken back as skin hung from his body. Finally they led him away to be crucified. My son was beaten so severely that he couldn’t even carry his own cross. They had to demand a man named Simon to come and help him carry his cross. Could I have stopped it? Absolutely. Should I have stopped it? Maybe, but only if you want to be the one to pay for your mistakes. It was either my son or it was you.
My son climbed and crawled his way up a hill called Golgotha. There they crucified him between two thieves. They stretched out his hands, grabbed the spikes, took the sledge hammer and drove the spikes through his hands and feet, deep into the wood. More blood sprayed everywhere. They then lifted up the cross into its standing position. They raised him up in the air, with absolutely nothing on, putting my son to open shame. Then “my people” began to insult and make fun of my son as he hung on that cross. For six hours my son fought for every breath. While he struggled for survival, for breath, Roman soldiers gambled for his clothes. Others simply abused him verbally by insulting him. Some were watching intently to see what would happen to this so called King of the Jews. And you won’t believe this, but it gets worse. As my son hung on that cross, every sin from every person who has ever lived or ever will live was put on his shoulders. Suddenly my son took on the sin of the molester, adulterer, murderer, gossip and I turned away from my son. He looked to me like the worst of the worst sinners. He no longer appeared perfect. He appeared to be the ultimate sinner. As I turned away from him and the sin he was holding, I heard my son call out to me in his sad state, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” I will never forget those words. Would you? I turned away from my son in that moment so that all the things that you once were, would be done away with in him. For you, I looked away as my son died. I heard him cry out with a loud voice one more time and then his head slumped over. He was dead. It was finished. The plan to reconcile man to myself, to bring them ultimate forgiveness was finished. At the moment of his death the curtain of the temple was torn in two. One Roman centurion who watched my son die even proclaimed him to be my son just by watching the way he died. The perfect blood had been shed. The perfect lamb, my son, had just taken away the sin of the world. Ultimate forgiveness, through my son and only my son, was now available to all mankind.
I look around at all those people again in the world. Do you know what I see now? I see people who continue to do awful things. But worse than that, I see people who label themselves. Even Christians, who are my people, continue to live in their guilt. If I was going to give them a message or try to say something to them today, I think I would simply say that, “When you are cleansed by the blood of my son’s sacrifice, you are completely forgiven in my eyes.” Their sins are completely wiped away and I look forward to spending eternity with them. People look at their situation that they deem as hopeless and they label themselves. They label themselves as worthless, shameful, unlovable and unforgivable. What they don’t realize is that my son went through the cross so that they would never have to feel that way. I sent my son to take away their guilt and their sin and to separate it as far from them as the east is from the west. Complete forgiveness is available to them if only they would accept my gift. The dilemma I faced had been worked out perfectly. I was able to justify all mankind and still be just by allowing someone to pay for the sins of man. Because of my son Christ, everyone can experience complete forgiveness.
(Become Stan again by bowing head for a few seconds)
I want to pray as we come to the end of our time together this morning.
As the praise team comes up again to do our invitation song this morning, I would like for you to think about the amazing gift of forgiveness that we have through Christ. Think about the amazing sacrifice that God made in allowing His Son to go through what He did for us. When God established a new system for us to get to Him, through His Son, one of the key elements is the blood of His Son. Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins. We are cleansed by that blood when we join Jesus, through baptism, in His death, burial and resurrection. Would you like to experience God’s forgiveness in your life today? I think that would be an awesome end to our service this morning. I don’t know about you, but I know this: I am thankful to God for forgiveness.
Listen to this message at www.godshere.org
