OPEN: (We started the sermon playing the theme music for "CSI Miami". Then commented:)
Some of you may be asking “What in the world was that?”
That was the theme music from the hit TV show “CSI Miami”. There’s CSI, CSI Miami, and CSI New York… and for the next few weeks we’re going to be presenting a series of sermons we call “CSI Jerusalem”.
Does anybody know what CSI stands for? That’s right – “Crime Scene Investigation.”
For the next few weeks we’re going to be looking at the cross from perspective of a “Crime Scene”. We’re going to be Crime Scene investigators, and as with all good Crime Scene Investigators, we’re going to be looking at the following elements of Calvary:
1. The Motive
2. The Crime Scene
3. The Suspects
4. The Evidence
5. The Witnesses
Today, we’ll be looking at the MOTIVE for Jesus dying on the cross. Although, actually, the motive isn’t that hard to find in Scripture. The Bible is exceptionally clear as to why Jesus died:
John 3:16 tells us: “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
That passage tells us that the motive for the death of Jesus Christ was this:
1. Jesus died because God loved us
2. And if Jesus had NOT died, we would all perish because of our sins
3. But because He did die, if we believe in Jesus - if we accept Him on His terms and give our lives to Him - then we will not have to face the judgment we deserve for our sins.
That’s what John 3:16 says about the motive for Christ’s death on the cross.
CSI Miami’s theme song has these words in it: “I get on my knees and pray, we won’t be fooled again.” And as I looked at the “Motive” for Christ’s death, I realized there were people who would try to fool us - to deceive us about the reason for Jesus’ dying on the cross.
I. There are theologians out there who will try to convince you
… that Jesus’ death was a mistake
… that He had not intended to die…
… but instead, His goal was to set up His own earthly kingdom
However (according to these supposed experts) Jesus was swept up in political intrigues that He could neither foresee nor control.
You can hear from these authorities several times a year on TV on channels like PBS, The History Channel, the Discovery Channel and several other places on the TV dial.
And these experts write innumerable books and hold highly publicized conferences to discuss why the Jesus of the Bible WASN’T who He said He was.
ILLUS: Back in 1993, several denominations held a conference they called “Re-imaging 1993”
In that conference an Episcopal theologian (Virginia Ramey Mollenkott) declared: “As an incest survivor, I can no longer worship in a theological context that depicts God as an abusive parent and Jesus as the obedient and trusting child”
At this same conference - a doctoral candidate at Union Theological Seminary (Beryl Ingram-Ward) questioned the idea of a “Father God” who would willfully kill his own child: “How can we continue to believe a loving parent would do this when human parents who do this are sent to prison.”
Now, these “theologians” not only question the reasonableness of God offering His son to die, they also tend to question the very idea that God would “interfere” in the course of human history. In 1999, a liberal theologian named Borg stated: “For me to accept that God transformed the corpse of Jesus would not only violate my sense of the limits of the spectacular – but it would also privilege the Christian tradition and would be saying that God acted in Christianity in a way God has never acted in other religious traditions.”
II. Why would these “experts” – these “denominational theologians” - reject the Bible’s clear teaching as to the motive of Jesus’ death on the cross?
Why would they reject the idea that God would care so much for us that He would take our sins upon Himself and die in our place? I mean: they can look at the evidence from Scripture. They can see the purpose for Christ’s death as easily as you and I.
And yet they see all that … and reject that teaching as being offensive. Why???
Well, to say they’re just plain goofy would be the simplest explanation, but I believe there’s something even deeper going on here. Their behavior is symptomatic of a world that is in rebellion against God. Romans 8:7 says “the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so.”
These theologians would like to call themselves Christians, and they would like you to think that they are Christians… but they are not Christians. They are simply people with “sinful minds” who have gotten all dressed up in religious garments.
And they are “hostile to God” because God doesn’t do things the way they would like Him to.
What troubles these theologians is that they would prefer God would accept people based upon how “good they are”. In their mind’s eye, there is a line of morality. Those above the line go to heaven because they are decent people. People below that line go to hell. And of course, these theologians believe that they themselves are “good people”. They are somewhere above the line. Their morality is the measure of what God will accept.
Essentially, they believe that they are good enough to be good enough for God.
And the cross offends them because the cross is a denial of that idea
The cross declares that you’ll never be good enough to be good enough for God.
The cross declares that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God
The cross declares that there is no one who is righteous…..no one who can make themselves acceptable to God by their good deeds and so a holy sacrifice had to be made. A substitute had to step in so that they could become acceptable to God.
But now, these theologians -and many people who think like them- don’t agree with that concept
They believe that they CAN be acceptable to God
They believe they ARE “good” people
They believe that they are good enough to be good enough for God.
ILLUS: In reality, these people are like the man who was filling out a job application. He made his way through all the questions and came to one that read: "Have you ever been arrested?"
He wrote, "No."
The next question asked "Why?"
The applicant wrote down "I never got caught.”
Each one of us here realizes that if the world ever “caught us”…
If the world could ever see all the things we’ve done
Or hear all the things we’ve said
Or could know all the things we’ve thought
We would all crawl away into a corner and die of shame.
Robert Lewis Stevenson (a fairly “nice man” of his day) acknowledged: “Each of us has thoughts that would shame hell.”
But these “theologians” believe they can rely upon their own “righteousness” to get them into heaven. They believe their “SELF” righteousness will appeal to God. And they are not the first to ever believe this.
In the days of Jesus there were certain people who believed God would accept them because of their “self-righteousness.”. We know them as the Scribes and the Pharisees
And they were “righteous men”. Even Jesus acknowledged that they were righteous men.
Jesus said "… unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 5:20
But the Pharisees looked at Jesus and they saw the same problem with Jesus that our modern day “theologians” were upset with.
What didn’t the Pharisees like about Jesus? They were upset that He wasn’t all that impressed by their “righteousness”. In fact… Jesus didn’t seem to want to be in their company all that much.
Jesus much preferred to spend His time with someone else.
He preferred to spend his time with sinners.
He preferred the company of tax collectors
And prostitutes
And other “undesirables” in society.
These were people way below the line of acceptability. These were people who shouldn’t have been acceptable to God. And yet Jesus had the audacity to tell the Chief Priests and Elders of the people: “I tell you the truth, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you.” Matthew 21:31
Jesus said this to them because, as He later explained: “…the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.” Luke 19:10
The motive for Christ’s death was precisely that. As Paul declared: “Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners— of whom I am the worst.” 1 Timothy 1:15
Now what that means is this: If you’re not a sinner, then Jesus can’t save you.
If you’re filled with your own “self-righteousness” and you think you can make it on your own without God’s intervention: then you will go to hell… because you’re not likely to let Jesus help you. ILLUS: Years ago I was talking to a young man about becoming a Christian. He expressed the fact that he truly desired to belong to Jesus and so I asked him a couple of the basic questions I ask all converts:
1) “Do you believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God?” And he said “Yes.”
2) Then I asked “Do you believe that you are a sinner?” To which he replied “Well, I’m not really all that bad a person.”
“Well then,” I replied “you can’t be saved. Because Jesus only saves sinners.”
1 John 1:10 tells us “If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.” In other words, if we claim we have never sinned in our lives then we are calling Jesus a liar, because He said He came to die for sinners – including you and I. But if we say we’ve not sinned, we’re saying Jesus didn’t die for us.
But if you are a sinner and you know that you’re a sinner. If you have done terrible things in your life that you never could believe God would ever forgive. If you’re below the line of morality that even you think God would reject… Then you know that nothing short of the grace of God will ever make any difference.
ILLUS: There’s a true story about a gathering of various religious leaders in Chicago many years ago, practically every known religion was represented, and learned men from Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam and Christianity gave great speeches.
During one session, Dr. Joseph Cook of Boston rose unannounced and said:
"Gentlemen, I beg to introduce to you a woman with great sorrow. Bloodstains are on her hands, and nothing will remove them. The blood is that of murder, and nothing will take away the stain. She has been driven to desperation in her distress.
Is there anything in your religion that will remove her sin and give her peace?"
A hush fell upon the gathering as the speaker turned from one to another for an answer. Not one of those in the audience replied. And with good reason: everyone there realized that, in their respective religions, there was a line of morality below which no one could be saved… and this woman was waaaay below that line.
Dr. Cook waited an appropriate amount of time and then raised his eyes to heaven and cried out, "I will ask another the question. John, can you tell this woman how to get rid of her awful sin?"
The great preacher cocked his head as if waiting and listening for a reply. And then suddenly he cried: "Listen, John speaks "The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son cleans us from all sin (I John 1:7)."
Jesus came to save Sinners
And He came to do that by dying on the cross
Calvary was not an accident
Christ’s death was NOT the result of political intrigues that Jesus didn’t understand or control.
The cross was deliberate… and it’s message was clear
As Peter told the people on Pentecost “(Jesus) was handed over to you by God’s set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross.” Acts 2:23
It was God’s plan - God’s purpose - for Jesus to die upon the cross.
But why?
Because the God of Scripture, the one true God, really cares about what happens to you and me.
ILLUS: John Stott in his book “The Cross of Christ” tells of entering many Buddhist temples in different Asian countries and standing respectfully before the statue of the Buddha, his legs crossed, arms folded, eyes closed, the ghost of a smile playing around his mouth, a remote look on his face, detached from the agonies of the world.
But each time, after a while I have had to look away. And in imagination I have turned instead to the lonely, twisted, tortured figure on the cross, nails through hands and feet, back lacerated, limbs wrenched, brow bleeding from thorn-pricks, mouth dry and intolerably thirsty, plunged in god forsaken darkness.
That is the God for me!
He laid aside his immunity to pain.
He entered our world of flesh and blood, tears and death.
He suffered for us. Our sufferings become more manageable in the light of His.
There is still a question mark against human suffering, but over it boldly stamp another mark, the cross which symbolizes divine suffering.
CLOSE: One of the most beautiful stories I’ve ever heard is was told by a Dr. Walter L. Wilson of the Revival he held where a woman approached him after the crowds had gone to explain that she had a desire to become a Christian but she just couldn’t understand how God could forgive her and accept her.
For some reason, Dr. Wilson felt he should ask her if she recalled any scripture. At that point she said yes:
"For God so loved the world that he gave His only FORGOTTEN son..."
Noting that she had substituted "forgotten" for "begotten" he realized what he could say to help her...
"Do you know why God forgot His son?"
"No," she replied.
"He forgot His son because He wanted to remember you."
SERMONS IN THIS SERIES
CSI Jerusalem - The Motive = Acts 2:22-24
A Centurion’s Story = Matthew 27:50-54
CSI Jerusalem - Who Killed Jesus? = Matthew 26:1-5
Evidence That Demands A Verdict = Luke 24:1-35
CSI Jerusalem - Eyewitness Testimony = 1 Corinthians 15:1-8
