Who Is This Man? – Part 2: His Death

It was an early Sunday morning following a late-night youth group activity and I was driving a rented 15 passenger van to church. I was living in Cuyahoga Falls at the time and my route to the church was through the back roads going through the valley. There had been a heavy snow fall that morning, but I did not want to take the long way around Akron on the highway, so I thought I’d stick to my normal route.

As I was driving down Bath road, I began to feel less and less confident about the road conditions. I started thinking about turning around but kept going. Then there was this moment, the moment when I crossed the “point of no return” line. I had just crested the steep part of the hill and saw immediately two cars in the ditches on opposite sides of the road. I prayerfully navigated between them, knowing I could not hit my breaks or I would slide in too. As I passed them I could see farther down the hill and I saw three more vehicles in the ditches. Praise God, He allowed me to make it safely to the bottom of the hill.

In this story, there was a distinct “point of no return” a “defining moment that changed everything.” It has continued to impact my driving decisions in the snow to this day for sure. But each of us faces defining moments in our lives. There are decisions or situations that we encounter that alter our history forever.

As we consider our own record of history, there was an event that changed our records for all time: the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. Notice our calendar is measured in two units BC and AD, meaning “Before Christ” and AD is Latin for “In the Year of our Lord”. There has been attempts to remove the name of Christ from our history using BCE and CE, “Before Common Era” and “Common Era”, but even those are measured by the event of Jesus Christ.  

So, we ask, Why did Jesus die?

Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures… 1 Corinthians 15:1–3

I’d like to explore four reasons why Jesus died, although there are many, many more. Tonight we are going to look at 1) The Depravity of Mankind, 2) The Holiness and Justice of God, 3) Prophecies, and 4) The Love of God.

The Depravity of Mankind (The Bad News)

The short answer is this, Jesus died on the cross so that we don’t have to. We are depraved human beings, meaning we are all fallen sinners and cannot earn our way back to God. The Bible is very clear on our sinfulness and our desperate need for a Savior.  As we look back at the Old Testament, we see that God began the world and created us good to be in a relationship with Him. But Adam and Eve chose to eat the forbidden fruit and it brought sin and death into the world (Romans 5:12).

We can’t sit here and blame Adam and Eve, for all of us have chosen, and continue to choose, to do our own thing (Isaiah 53:6). God created us, but our sins separated us from Him and we cannot earn our way back. So God sent His Son to do for us what we could not do for ourselves.

The Holiness and Justice of God

Jesus came to die because God is a holy God and cannot approve of sin. His justice demands that He punish sin. One commentator said it like this,

“If God were not unchangeably just, and mankind not incurably depraved, the death of Christ for our sins would not have been necessary.”

The Scriptures testify to a God who will one day bring an accounting to all the evil in the world. Romans 2:1-5 speaks of God’s goodness and kindness is made known in order to draw us to repentance. Repentance is needed because there is the very real danger of encounter the wrath of God’s justice.

However, Jesus canceled out our record of sin by nailing it to the cross (Colossians 2:13-14) when He shed His blood for the forgiveness of sin (Hebrews 9:22). In this act, the Holy God is able to punish sin and appease His wrath because of the sacrifice of Jesus.

Prophecies

One of the most amazing opportunities we have is to look back on the record God has left us and see that His plan was always to send forth His Son to die for our sins. Not only did God promise as Savior, but He specifically laid out details on how Jesus would die.

Crucifixion was created by the Persians in 300-400BC and then “perfected” by the Romans as a way to torture and kill the worst kind of offenders. This method of execution was not in existence when the writers of the prophecies penned these words:

“For dogs encompass me; a company of evildoers encircles me; they have pierced my hands and feet…” (Psalm 22:16 written by King David around 1000BC).

“But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5 written by the prophet Isaiah around 600BC).

“And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn” (Zechariah 12:10 written by the prophet around 520BC).

Jesus fulfilled hundreds of prophecies just like these during His life and through His death. The precision and accuracy are amazing and demonstrate the divine inspiration of the Bible. It would be impossible for any man to fulfill the prophecies concerning Jesus unless He was God.

The prophecies show us that God had set a plan in motion and is working out His plan of redemption.

The Love of God

It’s been said that the Bible is God’s “Love Letter” to us, and in many ways, it is. The story of Hosea and Gomer is a small illustration of God’s great love for us. If you would take a few minutes and look up John 10:18; John 15:13; Romans 5:8, 10 for instance you will learn a lot about how the death of Jesus demonstrates the love of God.

As we read this, we see that Jesus declares that He is a voluntary participant in the drama about to unfold. He chose to lay down His life and face the cross for the joy that was set before Him (Hebrews 12:2). The greatest display of one’s love is to lay down their life for someone. Jesus was willing to lay down His life for us while we were still rebelling against Him.

This is the length Jesus was willing to go to, in order to show you and me how serious He is about loving us. You are loved beyond measure. If you doubt that truth, look to the cross. This is why Jesus came, this is why He died, to show you His love.

In the Year of Our Lord

And so today we learn that our sins separated us from God. A great gulf is fixed and we cannot cross it. God, in His holiness and justice, cannot overlook sin and requires a just sacrifice. He promised to make away and Jesus came to fulfill that way. Why would He do this? Because He is and kind and merciful God who loves us very much. Do you know Him? Have you trusted Jesus’ perfect sacrifice for your sins?

Next week we will look at the evidence for the resurrection! Happy Holy Week and a very Happy Easter to you!

Who Is This Man? Part 1 - Miracles

Who is Jesus? As the disciples reacted, “What sort of man is this, that the winds and the sea would obey him” (Matthew 8:27)? Here they were, fishermen caught in a storm and frightened for their lives and Jesus calms the waves and the winds. It provoked wonder, awe and soul searching.

It leads us to the most important question you can ask yourself, “who is the man Jesus?” Is He who He said He is, the Son of God and the Messiah? Or is he delusional or is he a liar?

These next weeks leading up to Easter, we will be studying the Life and Miracles of Jesus, the Crucifixion (why did Jesus have to die) and the Resurrection. We are taking an apologetic approach, meaning we will be exploring why we believe these accounts are true and not fiction. We, as Christians, have an evidentiary faith, not just a blind faith.

When we are asked to “prove that there is a God” we are left with the truthful response, “you cannot prove God, nor can you disprove God.” Asking for proof is the wrong question. Prove to me that Alexander the Great really lived? Can you? No, you cannot “prove” he lived, but you can give me evidence that points to his existence.

Proof is a scientific term for applying the scientific method to something. These questions belong in a laboratory. When it comes to the existence of God, to the life of Christ, and to people of history, we rely on evidence, which means this discussion belongs in the courtroom.

There are many who started off as atheists who sought to disprove Christianity, yet following the evidence led them to Christ. Not only did they turn to follow Christ but they became apologists for the faith. C.S. Lewis wrote “Mere Christianity” as a defense of the faith. Lee Strobel applied his investigative journalism methods to the story of Christ, found Christ and wrote the book “A Case for Christ.” Josh McDowell’s pursuit led him to write “Evidence that Demands a Verdict”. I could go on, but the point is made, when rigorous and honest pursuit of truth is sought, the evidence points to Jesus, the Son of God.

So we begin with the life and miracles of Jesus. Why did Jesus come?

“For I tell you that Christ became a servant to the circumcised to show God's truthfulness, in order to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs, and in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy.” Romans 15:8–9

Here Paul demonstrates that Jesus came to testify of God’s truthfulness and confirm the promises made in the Old Testament. To simplify, Jesus came to show that God is who He says He is, and He does what He promises to do. In doing so, He opened the door for the Gentiles to see the glory of god and receive His mercy. Jesus came to provide salvation for all who believe, and that salvation is found in demonstrating that He is who He says He is and He does what He promises to do.

In this one post, I cannot begin to answer all these questions, but the apostle John points us in a great direction when He gives the purpose for the book of John:

“Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” John 20:30–31

We may quickly pass over one of his biggest clues here if we don’t stop and look at what he is pointing at. The key word we want to focus on is “signs”. All through the book, John uses the word “sign” instead of “miracle”. Miracle comes from the Greek word meaning a demonstration of power. Sign comes from the word meaning symbol, or pointing to something beyond the specific action.

The miracles/signs in the book of John are to point you to the fact that Jesus is the Son of God and that you may believe on His name.

John Piper encourages us to pause after reading a miraculous encounter with Jesus and ask “what is this telling me about Jesus” and “what is this telling me about the Father” and “what promises of God does this miracle fulfill”?

I believe those are great questions to ask as we look through some of the miracles of Jesus. C.S. Lewis identified that humanity has sought many ways to explain the problems of this world and developed many theories that fall short to explain the good and the bad. “The Christian view,” he says, “is that this is a good world that has gone wrong, but still retains the memory of what it ought to have been” (C. S. Lewis “Mere Christianity” pg 42).

Lewis points to the fact that God has made this world good, but sin has corrupted it. We have an innate knowledge that there is something more than just this life. Solomon said that God “has set eternity in the hearts of man” (Ecclesiastes 3:11). That has been described as the “God shaped vacuum” in all of us. We know that something is wrong with the world, we long for something more.

Tim Keller claims that the miracles of Christ bridge that gap.

“They (miracles) lead not simply to cognitive belief, but to worship, to awe and wonder. Jesus’ miracles in particular were never magic tricks, designed only to impress or coerce…We modern people think of miracles as the suspension of the natural order, but Jesus meant them to be the restoration of the natural order. The Bible tells us that God did not originally make the world to have disease, hunger, and death in it. Jesus has come to redeem where it is wrong and heal the world where it is broken. His miracles are not just proofs that he has power but also wonderful foretastes of what he is going to do with that power. Jesus’ miracles are not just a challenge to our minds, but a promise to our hearts, that the world we all want is coming” (Tim Keller, Reasons for God page 99).

Taking these thoughts that Lewis and Keller share, we can see that miracles answer the deepest longing of our hearts and demonstrate that Jesus is who He says He is, has done what He promised to do, and will continue to fulfill His promises for us. We can trust Him!

As an exercise look up John 5:1-15; John 6:1-15; 11:1-44 and ask, what are these miracles pointing to about Jesus? What about the Father? What promises do these fulfill?