Scripture Texts: Luke 23:32-43
Introduction.
The thief on the cross monologue on Good Friday promoted me to dig into that story more deeply. While not a traditional Easter text, I have discovered the Gospel of Easter is powerfully proclaimed by the thief, so it is fitting for Easter.
Scripture Texts: Luke 19:28-44
Introduction.
If you had to name the greatest week in human history, the most important week, can anyone think of one more important, more world-changing week than Holy Week?
This is the hinge of history. Everything hinges on this week, everything changes because of this week. The events of this week transformed the world in ways no other event in human history has. It impacts everyone alive today in every country whether you believe in Jesus or not.
The triumphal entry is one of the most famous stories from the life of Jesus. It is recounted in all four of the Gospels. It is profoundly important. We need to know this story and the meaning of it. Please take this to heart this morning as I reflect on five phrases in our text.
Scripture Texts: Romans 6:1-11
Since we have been preaching through Paul’s letter to the Romans, I chose for our text this morning the only passage in Romans that speaks specifically to the resurrection.
There are four facts in our text about the resurrection, that if you really think about it, are stunning, staggering, astonishing, in a word breathtaking.
Here are four facts from our text about the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
Two absolute certainties followed by two conditional certainties.
“Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father.” Verse 4
“Christ being raised from the dead will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him.” Verse 9
“Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.” Verse 8
“If we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.” Verse 5
“Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father.” Verse 4
A resurrection is a stunning fact, especially since it is so rare. You would expect there would be a lot of attention given to it, especially since there has only been one true resurrection. Paul relates it this way in I Corinthians.
I Corinthians 15:3-8 I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6 Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. 8 Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.
The facts surrounding the resurrection are well documented. First of all, they were told well in advance. The prophets in the OT gave a heads-up as to what would happen. Read Isaiah 53. Then there is the testimony of the women, of the disciples, the eyewitnesses. There are all the miraculous events, the stone rolled away, the empty tomb, the angels, the burial clothes left behind, something what wouldn’t have happened if His body had been stolen.
There is finally the Word of God, the four separate Gospel accounts, and of course the radically changed lives and willingness to die for this truth. Especially such an anti-Christian hater like the Pharisee Paul who saw the resurrected Jesus. People don’t give their lives for lies.
How do you explain the expansion of the Gospel and the church of Jesus Christ?
“Over 2000 years ago a middle eastern man claiming to be God was killed in a barbaric form of capital punishment leaving behind a handful of followers, most of whom had deserted him. Now over 2000 years later, there are little buildings in about every country on the earth where this same man is worshipped as King, little buildings like this one that are thousands of miles from the birthplace of this man and in some of the most remote regions. They can be found in jungles, deserts, forests, valleys, hollers, cities, towns, villages, and on mountains, hills, cliffs, plains, mainlands and islands” (Joseph Spurgeon).
The prophets predicted this. “For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, As the waters cover the sea” (Habakkuk 2:14).
How do you explain this transformation and expansion except by the fact of the resurrection, the most singular and significant event in human history.
Passage: Romans 1:18-23
Think about hearing this letter read for the very first time. Paul has told them how much he thanks God for their faith, he tells them how much he longs to come to them and how eager he is to preach the Gospel to them. Then he tells them about this Gospel and how the righteousness of God has been revealed and the best news of all, the righteous shall live by faith.
What are we expecting to hear next? More about this good news? Maybe Paul will flatter us with more gracious words. Maybe Paul will tell us how great we are doing in such a hard city to live in. Maybe he will tell us more about this good news of the Gospel, how much God loves us, how much God has done for us and how the Gospel will make us and our lives better and how God has a wonderful plan for our lives.
That’s how we think evangelism should be, right. Let me tell you all about Jesus and how wonderful He is and what He has done for us and how He can make our life better. All we want to hear about is dessert.
With vs. 18 we come to the body of the letter, the meat of Paul’s teaching. In order for the good news to be good news we have to know the bad news first, and not just the bad news, but how bad the bad news really is. Until we understand this, our view of the Gospel and of Jesus and God is going to be, well, like it is in much of America and in much of the American Evangelical Church. Weak, anemic, watered down, lukewarm, truth without power.
Paul will have none of that. Paul hasn’t suffered beatings, flogging, imprisonment, torture, shipwrecks, hunger and thirst, hatred and animosity, mocking and humiliation for a sweet, nice, precious Gospel. No one would suffer and be willing to die for that kind of Gospel.
Starting with verse 18 and for the next 64 verses Paul is going to humble us with our sin, our unrighteousness and ungodliness, our rebelliousness and the utter foolishness of our hearts and darkened minds. He is going to show that all men are in sin and under the just wrath of God. We have no righteousness of our own and if we are going to be saved it will have to be by a righteousness provided by God through faith in Jesus and His righteousness.
The world at the time of Romans was divided into two groups of people, Jews and Greeks, or Jews and Gentiles or pagans.
Paul starts with the Gentiles/Greeks. The rest of chapter one will focus on the spiritual condition of the Gentile world, the pagans, and their relationship with God, without the Gospel and saving grace.
Then chapter 2 to 3:8 will focus on the Jewish world without the Gospel. In a sense that is us Christians, the religious folks, the people who think we have Jesus, and we are all good, like the Jews having the Law.
Then 3:9-20 will give a summary universal application, the universal sinfulness and guilt and rebellion against God in every human heart.
He will destroy our pride, our independence, our autonomy all the way to Romans 3:21, until we cry “uncle,” until we submit and cry for mercy, until we see that we are all without excuse and hope except in Jesus.
Finally in 3:21 64 verses from here, Paul will return to the theme of the greatness of the gift of the Gospel in the righteousness of God freely given through faith in Jesus to all who believe.
Before we get there we have to face the reality of the seriousness of sin in our world and in our own hearts. Some might wish we skip over this or go over it quickly. Let me encourage us to persevere for three reasons.
Passage: Revelation 12:9-11; Romans 8:31-34
Have you ever had a conversation with a doctor that started with the question, “Doctor, how bad is it, how serious is my condition? Give it to me straight.”
It is a mark of wisdom to want to know the truth, to deal with reality, to not have our head in the sand or believe ignorance is bliss.
The seriousness of our condition will be based on several factors. What is the problem, how far has it progressed, what are the treatments, and what’s the prognosis of the treatments. With cancer we know of measurements like stage 1 or stage 4.
What would you say is the seriousness of our human condition spiritually, how bad is it? Are we aware we are in a battle for our life of epic proportions? How can we tell?
There are four ways we can measure it. One, by the level of damage and destruction we see from the battle, second, by the adversaries involved in the battle, third how long the battle has been going on, and fourth, from the how serious the remedy that is needed.
Passage: Matthew 21:1-11
In 1914 just after the beginning of WWI the famous British author H.G. Wells wrote a book, The War That Will End All Wars.
Many thought at the time it would be, but of course that bubble was soon burst. Just 25 years later the world was at war again and we are again tMattoday.
On the same day the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor they also carried out a major attack on the Philippines. We had a large military presence there under the command of General MacArthur. That became the first major land battle for American troops. For five months the poorly equipped and poorly supplied US and Filipino troops fought against superior numbers.
In March of 1942 General MacArthur went to Australia to get help with his famous promise, “I shall return.” A month later we suffered one of the most devastating military defeats in American history, and the largest surrender of US armed forces in history when on April 9, 1942, Major General King surrendered to the Japanese army. All of a sudden the Japanese had more POWs than they could deal with.
Today, April 10, 2022, marks the 80th anniversary of the beginning of the Bataan Death March. The Japanese force marched 76,000 prisoners of war, 66,000 Filipino and 10,000 Americans, 70 miles over 7 days, to a prison camp.
Of those 75,000 emaciated, malnourished, physically weak soldiers who started the march with little or no sleep, food or water, 54,000 reached the prison camp in the middle of Luzon. Anyone who fell or straggled behind was shot. The Bataan Death March was one of the most brutal war crimes ever committed by the Japanese.
To this day it is remembered in the Philippines where April 9 is a national holiday, called the Day of Valor. The heroism, sacrifices and suffering are not forgotten.
Over the next two and a half years another 30,000 would die while in prison. But General MacArthur made good his promise and returned to liberate the Philippines. On one amazing day in January 1945, 121 U.S. Rangers emerged from the jungle and after a brief fight, liberated the prison and rescued the 513 remaining American and Allied survivors of the Bataan Death March.
Hampton Sides describes it this way in his book Ghost Soldiers:
“Slowly, the awareness that this was a jailbreak was beginning to sink in among the rest of the prisoners. They were reacting with a kind of catatonic ecstasy, numb and inarticulate. One prisoner wrapped his arms around the neck of the first Ranger he saw and kissed him on the forehead. All he could he say was “Oh, boy! Oh, boy! Oh, boy!” Alvie Robbins found one prisoner muttering in a darkened corner of one of the barracks, tears coursing down his face. “I thought we’d been forgotten,” the prisoner said. “No, you’re not forgotten,” Robbins said. “We’ve come for you.”…”I was glad it was dark so he couldn’t see my tears,” Tommie Thomas remembered years later. With the help of many heroic Filipinos, the liberated prisoners, sick, weak, frail, made their way back to the Allied lines. Finally they saw an American flag, the first Stars and Stripes he’d seen since the surrender three years earlier. “We wept openly, and we wept without shame” (Hampton Sides, Ghost Soldiers, pp. 238, 317).
I wonder if in all of human experience there is any experience quite as powerful, quite as joyful as being liberated from some bondage.
Who of us can come close to that kind of experience, the liberating joy of a great release from a great bondage?
A prisoner who has been let out of prison.
A hostage released from his captors.
A slave set free like in the movie 12 Years a Slave.
Someone in bondage to some sin or addiction, porn, alcohol, finally gaining victory.
Getting free from a great financial debt. Getting a diagnosis of being cancer free.
A child let free after being grounded.
Right after Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness He went to Nazareth, His hometown and on the Sabbath went into the synagogue and read Isaiah 61 and preached from it.
In Isaiah’s prophecy liberation and incredible joy go hand in hand: “He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;… to comfort all who mourn;… the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit” (Isaiah 61:1-3).
After He preached, He astonished everyone there by saying, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4:21).
Three years later, on this day, on the beginning of Holy Week on Palm Sunday, we remember another day of valor, another death march and the beginning of another great liberation.
While the crowds are singing and praising hosanna in the highest, Jesus is intentionally making His final death march, surrendering to enemy forces, submitting to horrific torture and injustice, yielding to sin and death. Jesus’ march was truly a march to the war to end all wars, the cosmic battle against the spiritual forces of darkness, of sin, Satan and death.
This is that day, when Jesus begins fulfilling the prophecies of Zachariah and Isaiah. He wants us to know three things, which I take from three phrases in our text.
Passage: Exodus 35:4-8; 20-22; 36:3-7
The Phase III building the future proposal that has been presented to us is no doubt one of the biggest things we have done in the lifetime of anyone in this flock. This is bigger than Phase I and Phase II put together.
A month ago I called us to begin praying in earnest for God’s wisdom, will and leading. This morning we enter into the next step, the pledge process. For the next five weeks I encourage all of us to continue to pray and ask God to show us what He wants to do and how He will provide for this.
You have seen the concept drawings, you have read or heard the vision behind them. A great team of people in our flock have been working on this for over five years. From the input received at the townhall meeting adjustments and improvements will be made. And based on the pledges we will see what God will enable us to do.
Exodus 35-36.
Our texts this morning give us Israel’s first building project, their Phase I was build a tabernacle. Five hundred years later they would build Phase II, the temple. You could say that as church building projects go we are moving at lightning speed. We are up to Phase III in only 20 years.
There are some differences between their building project and ours.
First, God gave directly to Moses the detailed architect drawings. God gave precise instructions and measurements for how to make everything that would go in the tabernacle, even down to the clothes the priests should wear. Eight chapters of Exodus are devoted to how to build it.
Then, God became the project manager and got all His own sub-contractors. He gave specific Spirit-anointed gifts, abilities and talents to specific people to do each task.
Finally, God stirred the hearts of the people to supply all the building materials, to raise all the funds for the project. God was the architect, the project manager and the fundraiser.