A Sunday Message

1Corinthians‬ ‭2:2‬ ‭- For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

A great Sunday message for resurrection day. Our life is only sure in Christ. It's all about Him, as I repeatedly say. His birth, His life, His death and His resurrection...all that we might become righteous in Him. 

2Corinthians‬ ‭5:21‬ ‭- For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

All about Him. The world is determined to do in their own power and strength. It is pure pride to be that determined. And don't you know we all fall into it. But God says we have no real power or strength apart from Him. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God... ‭(John‬ ‭15:5‬, 2Corinthians‬ ‭3:5‬)

So the Sunday message was titled Jesus Christ and Him Crucified. In a nutshell, power is missing in many churches. Why? Because often church is being done man's way, not God's. It's man's wisdom, not His. For if anyone thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. (Galatians‬ ‭6:3)‬ ‭We must be born again. When we are born into Christ and become true believers, that power works in the church. His Holy Spirit power is evident as we attend and worship. I can say that I feel that power even in Sunday school when we discuss the Bible. 

Power comes with the new birth in Christ. It's the only true power. There can be life in any aspect of Sunday morning worship. It doesn't need to be somber. Besides being in Sunday school, it's in our praise and worship, prayer, time of testimonies, the message and time at the altar. Only a life in Christ produces this. Entertainment is fleeting; preaching Christ is eternal. He came that we could all have life. No one else can do this. We cannot achieve eternal life on our own. God gave us our initial birth and He hopes we will receive that new spiritual birth to gain access to heaven one day. The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. John‬ ‭10:10‬ ‭

Jesus Christ and Him crucified. It is all we need to hear preached. This was the apostle Paul's main message since he knew the power of God in his life. Before Paul became an apostle he was Saul of Tarsus. He was a persecutor of Jesus' followers and disciples. I love this story! He was stopped one day on his way to persecute even more and was blinded by a great light from heaven. He once was blind to the truth of Jesus, but now he saw Him...and believed. From then on Paul preached Christ and His power, in His short life, and in His power over death.

That should be the goal of any believer, to preach Christ, His power to save, His power that comes to us upon conversion, His power in our lives...to give us wisdom, understanding and discernment. Hallelujah. Jesus is alive. He reigns. He died for our sins. He wants to be your Savior. 

2Corinthians 5:20 - Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though 
God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. 

Hallelujah, For All You've Done

Isaiah 49:6 - "I will also give You as a light...that You should be My salvation to the ends of the earth." 

The beating alone should have killed Him. But this was no ordinary man. This was Jesus Christ, Son of God...God incarnate. He was a Man with a mission, to do the will of His Father. That will was to die for the sins of every man, woman and child that has lived, is living and will live. This Man suffered many things. ...so His visage was marred more than any man, and His form more than the sons of men. Surely He took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by Him, and afflicted. 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. (Isaiah 52:14, Isaiah 53:4-5)

We complain about being mistreated, about being wrongfully accused, about life not being fair. Who are we...to think like this? Jesus was rejected, wrongfully accused and mistreated. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. He is despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him (Romans 5:8, Isaiah 53:3). He suffered all of life's trials and temptations, but He chose to because He loved us so much. Has Buddha made this claim? Or Mohammed? Has any god one might worship actually done this for anyone? Can our sports, music or movie heroes do this? Can even His mother? And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent (John 17:3).

Only God could do this. Only the King of kings and the Lord of lords, Maker of heaven and earth. He stepped down from His throne that He might come to earth to live among sinners so He would experience every temptation, sadness and challenge so that He would understand and He alone could provide the Way for us and tear apart the veil that separated us from an all loving, all powerful God. He did this for you. He did it for me. He did not consider it loss. He was wounded that we might be spiritually healed. He died for our gain. His death brought life. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:38-39).

The crown of thorns, the blood that was shed. We might not like to hear of or see such gruesome details. We might turn our eyes away, but it happened just the same. We might try not to consider it all and what's more we might not be able to comprehend how one Man could withstand it all. But He did it because He loved us so much. As He carried the cross up the road to Golgotha the suffering continued. Who could withstand such agony? Then being nailed to the cross...all this was His passion. He did it because He loved us so much that He gave...period. He gave. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life (John 3:16).

He gave and we take. We feel we are deserving of so much in life when we don't deserve a darn thing. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all (Isaiah 53:6). He already knew He would do this but still did not count as loss His life for us. 

It's not all about us but all about Him. He died so we might live. Only Jesus Christ, Son of God could have done that. While He hung on that cross you were on His mind. Every step He took to get there, with every word He spoke during His ministry He thought about your salvation. Imagine His head full of the sad realization that one person would reject Him and then the joy knowing another one would be with Him some day in Paradise, our Promised Land.

At 3:00 in the afternoon, after six hours on the cross, He finally gave up His Spirit. He proclaimed: It is finished. Access to God was restored as the veil was torn. He took His last breath still thinking only of you and me and loving us even in our sinful condition. I wonder if all the lives of all the people in the world flashed through His mind? Wouldn't it be just like Him to have no thought about Himself but to think about the world which He just gave His life for?

It might be easier to dwell on the thought of baskets filled with candy and chocolate bunnies and the fun of hunting for Easter eggs, but I guarantee these thoughts did not enter His mind. His life was lived knowing He was going to and willing to pay the price with His death. 

This part of the agonizing story doesn't end there. He arose again. Hallelujah! He brought good out of something that seemed so horribly wrong. That's why God can make the claim that He brings good out of evil in our lives, if we are followers of an all-loving, all-powerful God. This dreadful story has the most glorious ending. And we can experience the same.

He became the Lamb that the people of the Old Testament sacrificed during their very first Passover. It was His blood that was applied to the doorposts and lintels of the houses of the Jews held captive in Egypt to keep the firstborn of every household safe from the angel of death and a jealous Egyptian Pharaoh. It is that same blood that covers our hearts and a multitude of sins, rejections and miseries as only man may withstand. It is His blood that courses through our veins when we receive Christ as our own personal Lord and Savior.

He lived, He died, He rose again. He became the Way that we might have eternal life. Isn't this something to celebrate? We will never be able to wrap our heads around all He's done for us but we can make a simple declaration of our faith in Him. We can submit our wills to His as He did to His Father. We can receive Him that we might also be raised up from a spiritual death. We can be resting in His love and His life the rest of our days. Thank you, Lord, for all you've done!

Philippians 3:10-11 - that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.