–J. Lee Butts  (Written in Blood)

       “Who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness–by whose stripes you were healed.”
                    –1 Peter 2:24 (NKJV)
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I will not spend much of your time this morning as I want you to be pondering, meditating, and contemplating the events and meaning of Easter.  There are so many things to say, and so many sermons have been preached, but the question remains–What does it mean to you?  
       The crucifixion–the death of Jesus Christ.  We can throw all the words:  atonement, propitiation, redemption, reconciliation, sacrifice, substitution,  justification and contemplate each of them today.  For they all took place on the cross.  
       A week before He was hailed as a king when He rode into Jerusalem.  When He saw and heard the throng of people cheering and praising His eyes were not necessarily on them.  His mind was not really on the physical pain He would soon feel.  But He was thinking of what would happen to Him.  There would be darkness.  The light of the world would face darkness.  His Father would turn His back on Him.  He would be forsaken by the Father.  He would hang alone, even though there were two criminals hanging on either side of Him.  Alone, forsaken, the darkness creeping in.
       Jesus never doubted that He would rise from the grave.  That never entered His mind for He knew His power, the Father’s power, and that of the Holy Spirit.  No grave could ever hold Him.  That never crossed His mind.  In fact several times He mentioned the fact that He would rise again.

                “And He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.”
                         –Mark 8:31 (NKJV)
               “Jesus answered and said to them, ‘Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.'”
                         –John 2:19 (NKJV)

The leaders, those who had Him crucified, remembered His words,  “After three days I will rise.” (Matthew 27:63).  No, there was no doubt or concern that He would rise again.  
       It is important that we realize that all of the work was completed on the cross.  The resurrection was the demonstration that He had not died in vain (Stott) and that He is victorious in His purpose and forevermore.  Jesus accomplished what He came into the world to do.  The second phrase Jesus cried in a loud voice, “It is finished!”  In Greek it is but one word, “tetelestai.”  It means, “it has been and will for ever remain finished.”  The penalty of sin was paid, the justice of God was satisfied. (Stott)
       After that there was one final phrase uttered.  One full of confidence and knowing the final outcome,  “And when Jesus had cried out with a loud voice, He said, ‘Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit.’ Having said this, He breathed His last.” (Luke 23:46, NKJV)  For you, for me, for humankind–It is finished.  Despite the pain, physical and spiritual, we are told that, “who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross…” (Hebrews 12:2, NKJV)  He knew that the cross was the finish of His and His Father’s work of salvation.  The hope of millions rest on that cross if only . . . if only they would look to the salvation brought on the cross and realize that the work of Jesus was finished.

Every man is born with death in him.  It’s only a matter of time.”

                         –Louis L’Amour  (Mojave Crossing)

 

       “O Death, where is your sting?  O Hades, where is your victory?”

                         –1 Corinthians 15:55 (NKJV)

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I think that sometimes we give the devil too much credit, and too much power.  Oh, don’t get me wrong, he wields tremendous power, but it cannot compare to the power of the Lord.  I also think that we often look at the devil as driving the nails into the hands of Jesus.  No, it was the Roman soldier.  Let’s look at this further.

       

          “‘But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, “You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.”‘

          Then the serpent said to the woman, ‘You will not surely die.'”

                    –Genesis 3:3-4 (NKJV)

 

We know that Adam and Eve did not die physically at that time, but death began to creep into their bodies.  We also know that there was a “spiritual death” that occurred.  Man was now doomed in his sin.

       Here is what I want you to ponder.  Can you think of a time in the Bible where it shows that the devil actually killed someone?  I have thought about this, especially in regard to Jesus hanging on the cross.  There may have been celebration of the imps and demons, but they did not crucify Jesus.  Satan may have rejoiced, or did he shudder realizing what was taking place?  But Satan did not kill Jesus.  Hovering in the spiritual realm around the cross were legions of angels, ready, should Jesus decide to call upon them and be done with mankind.  Yes, Satan may have smiled, but it didn’t last long.

       If Satan had the power to take the life of Jesus why did he not do it in the wilderness?  Why was there not the physical struggle in the wilderness?  See, we too often get caught up in this physical temporal world, and do not look at things with spiritual eyes.  For good reason–we cannot understand the temporal, how could we even begin to understand the spiritual?   

       Satan didn’t thrust the spear into the side of Jesus.  Satan didn’t place the crown of thorns on His head.  Yes, Satan is involved with the death of Jesus, but not in the way that we think.  And right here, let me emphatically say, that I don’t understand it all.  That it is a mystery to me.  But what brought death upon the Lord Jesus Christ was your sin and mine.  It was sin, way back in the Garden, that brought death.  It was sin that took the life of Jesus on the cross.  He became sin!  No wonder the Father could not look upon Him.  No wonder He was left alone in the darkness for He was sin.  

 

               We may not know, we cannot tell,

               What pains he had to bear;

               But we believe it was for us

               He hung and suffered there.

                    –unknown

 

       It was sin that brought about the death of Christ.  Satan did not kill Him.  And even in the midst of a seemingly victory for darkness, Christ rose and took the chains of sins and death.  See, when someone dies, God has allowed it.  Understand that the devil cannot overthrow the throne of the Almighty.

       So in this season of Easter, think of the cause of Jesus’ death.  It was sin.  Think of the agony–not the physical–but the spiritual agony He went through.  Think of the awesome plan of God that we cannot begin to understand.  Praise Him for His wonderful salvation to each and every one of us.

                    –Lou Bradshaw  (and Cain Smiled)

       “But hold fast what you have till I come.”

                    –Revelation 2:25(NKJV)
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Have you ever noticed that when reading the Bible, light all of a sudden dawns in your brain?  You can read a portion over and over, then, wham one day a different perspective is shown or a part of the verse never noticed before is seen.  I do want to mention something about prophecy.  So often there is a misconception regarding prophecy for it means telling the truth.  It may or may not have something to do with the future.  Remember, if you read the words of the prophets, they were primarily writing and speaking to the people of their day, however, the covenant background may be seen in their words at times, also there may be messianic and eschatological messages in their speaking.

               “When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.  The more they were called, the more they went away; they kept sacrificing to the Baals and burning offerings to idols.”
                         –Hosea 11:1-2 (ESV)

       In verse one it is clear to see a double prophecy.  First is the idea that God loved Israel, He regarded Israel as His son.  He cared for them, treated them with special care, made special covenants with them, and delivered them in many instances but clearly from the slavery of Egypt.  We also see this as a Messianic prophecy.  Matthew writes, “Out of Egypt I called My Son.” (Matthew 2:15, NKJV)  You may remember that Joseph was warned to take the baby Jesus and Mary and flee to Egypt until the time of Herod’s death.
       That’s the portion that is very familiar to me.  But verse two is what struck me this time.  Look at it closely, take time to contemplate it.  “The more they were called, the more they went away…”  A Jewish text reads, “I sent prophets to a thousand of them.”  (Targum)  The prophets were sent to Israel, God’s “son”.  They had messages of repentance, warning, about proper worship and living.  However, look at the verse, “the more they were called, the more they went away.”  Think of the access to the gospel we have today.  God is speaking, God is always speaking, but more and more the people are turning away.  There is the call to repentance, but it falls on deaf ears.  The people do not want to hear the voice of God; they want to do what is right in their own eyes.
       I remember in years gone by I would try to tune in the radio in the car, or on my transistor.  It seems that most of the time all I got was static.  That was the way of Israel when Hosea prophesied, the message was often jammed with other messages, or static interfered.  Static coming from the peoples’ hearts.  The more they went from God the more they turned to Baals.  We see it happening today; we see the words of Paul coming tragically more and more true, “…who exchanged the truth of God for the lie…” (Romans 1:25, NKJV).  The more people were given the opportunity to know God the more they resisted.  Paul writes, “And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting.” (Romans 1:28, NKJV)
       When the radio waves cry out a voice of repentance, when the media is full of scripture verses, podcasts, sermons–the voice of repentance is there, but are the people listening or are they turning more and more to their Baals?  Israel upon the word of God coming to them, “kept sacrificing to the Baals and burning offerings to idols.”  Remember, many of those sacrifices were children.  Do we see the sacrificing of our children in abortion?  Maybe more deceiving and more sinister are the drag queens reading to children in the schools.  The media spewing forth the vomit of transgendering and the gay agenda.  The more people are called, it seems, the more they went away.
       Back to prophecy, it is speaking the truth.  The prophet spoke to the people of his day, but the message may be for those of the future.  It may be eschatological and show us that we are indeed, living in the last days.  Jesus spoke about the offenses to children, but His words rang deeper than just the children, “But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were drowned in the depth of the sea.  Woe to the world because of offenses!  For offenses must come, but woe to that man by whom the offense comes!”  (Matthew 18:6-7, NKJV)

                    –Psalm 107:29; Luke 8:25 (NKJV)
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My Uncle Ted used to work on planes and was a flight engineer for NCAR.  I once asked him, how do those humongous planes get up in the air and stay there?  He sort of grinned, replying with only one word, “POWER.”  Whenever you feel down and out, look to Psalm 93.  Whenever you seem overwhelmed by the evil in the world, look to Psalm 93.  Whenever the news is bad, the outlook terrible, and there seems to be no hope–look to Psalm 93.

          1 — The LORD reigns, He is clothed with majesty; the LORD is clothed, He has girded Himself with strength.  Surely the world is established, so that it cannot be moved.
          2 — Your throne is established from of old; You are from everlasting.
          3 — The floods have lifted up, O LORD, the floods have lifted up their waves.
          4 — The LORD on high is mightier than the noise of many waters, than the mighty waves of the sea.
          5 — Your testimonies are very sure; holiness adorns Your house, O LORD, forever.      (NKJV)

“Our God reigns,” does He in the midst of the pestilence facing you?  “Our God reigns,” does He when you face financial ruin and your career is on the line?  “Our God reigns,” does He when cancer strikes?  “Our God reigns,” does He when a child who was dedicated to the Lord has turned away from Him and rebels against godly teaching?  No matter what situation we find ourselves in we must realize that God truly does reign.
       God is sovereign.  The sovereignty of God is probably one of the most hated and maligned doctrines of the Bible, yet it should be one of the most comforting, bringing peace to our souls.  Lawson points out that, “God always does as He pleases, when He pleases, where He pleases, how He pleases, with whom He pleases.”  We don’t like that.  It hurts our self-autonomy.  But when trouble arises and we don’t know what to do, how does that affect the wondrous autonomous man?    Man in his free-will rebels, but God reigns triumphantly despite the rebellion.
       Perhaps our perspective is blurred or even wrong.  We may say that God is unfair.  We may think Him powerless or disinterested in our lives.  Perhaps it is because we are weak that when things seem to overwhelm we think that God is weak as well.  Not so!  He is closer to you than you can see.  If He can take care of the world, the universe, can He not take care of your and me–oh us of little faith?  In times when we don’t see clearly–look to Him who is seated on the throne.
       Is the world around you too loud?  Is all you hear is the clamor of evil, wickedness, and hatred?  The noise is so loud that you cannot hear God listening or you are so distracted that you can’t hear Him.  The noise of the attack on your soul is loud, then listen more carefully.  In the midst of the sound of the mighty waves pounding against the shoreline listen for the voice of God.

          “And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude, as the sound of many waters and as the sound of mighty thunderings, saying, ‘Alleluia!  For the Lord God Omnipotent reigns!  Let us be glad and rejoice…!”
                        –Revelation 19:6-7 (NKJV)

Sometimes the noise and thunderings of the world is perceived to be louder than the voice of the Lord.  Listen through the noise, hearken to the voice of the Lord.  Again, when you seem to be overwhelmed come back to Psalm 93 and recognize the omnipotence of the Lord.  That same power is there to help each one of us overcome.

               “God moves in a mysterious way
               His wonders to perform;
               He plants his footsteps in the sea,
               And rides upon the storm.”
                      –William Cowper