Bro Gary Sunday Morning 4/22/12

Bro Gary Sunday Morning 4/22/12

The passion of Christ.

Act 1:1  The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach,

Act 1:2  Until the day in which he was taken up, after that he through the Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen:

Act 1:3  To whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God:

(The book of Luke is the former treatise to Theophilus.)

I have read this passage many times attempting to understand the passion of Christ.  The Apostle Paul said, “We know in part and we prophesy in part…”  I believe I understand in part. 

Why did Christ suffer?  You and I have done some suffering.  A lot of my suffering was self inflicted.  Jesus’ suffering was not for sin or mistakes that He made.  This passion goes past that thought. 

Everyone here that has suffered according to the Word of God and has gained from that suffering can say that we have benefited from that suffering.  1 Peter 5:10.  If we suffer according to the Word of God and allow that suffering to teach us by the Holy Ghost, it can definitely benefit us.

Jesus didn’t have to suffer.  He could have called 10,000 angels.  It wasn’t to save Himself that Jesus suffered.  He did not suffer for His own benefit. 

Vicarious – means to suffer in place of another.  We see beyond a shadow of any doubt, the passion of Christ was that He suffered in place of another.

Gen 3:14  And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:

Gen 3:15  And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

After sin entered the world, God said that the seed of the woman would bruise the head of Satan and Satan would bruise His heal.

The Psalm chapter 22 is a powerful prophecy of the passion of Christ.  Jesus went through the most difficult time but not because He had to do it for Himself.  His passion was not for Himself.

Psa 22:1  To the chief Musician upon Aijeleth Shahar, A Psalm of David. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?

Psa 22:2  O my God, I cry in the daytime, but thou hearest not; and in the night season, and am not silent.

Psa 22:3  But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel.

Psa 22:4  Our fathers trusted in thee: they trusted, and thou didst deliver them.

Psa 22:5  They cried unto thee, and were delivered: they trusted in thee, and were not confounded.

Psa 22:6  But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people.

Psa 22:7  All they that see me laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying,

Psa 22:8  He trusted on the LORD that he would deliver him: let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him.

Psa 22:9  But thou art he that took me out of the womb: thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mother's breasts.

Psa 22:10  I was cast upon thee from the womb: thou art my God from my mother's belly.

Psa 22:11  Be not far from me; for trouble is near; for there is none to help.

Psa 22:12  Many bulls have compassed me: strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round.

Psa 22:13  They gaped upon me with their mouths, as a ravening and a roaring lion.

Psa 22:14  I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint: my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels.

Psa 22:15  My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and thou hast brought me into the dust of death.

Psa 22:16  For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet.

Psa 22:17  I may tell all my bones: they look and stare upon me.

Psa 22:18  They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture.

Psa 22:19  But be not thou far from me, O LORD: O my strength, haste thee to help me.

Psa 22:20  Deliver my soul from the sword; my darling from the power of the dog.

Psa 22:21  Save me from the lion's mouth: for thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns.

Psa 22:22  I will declare thy name unto my brethren: in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee.

Psa 22:23  Ye that fear the LORD, praise him; all ye the seed of Jacob, glorify him; and fear him, all ye the seed of Israel.

Psa 22:24  For he hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; neither hath he hid his face from him; but when he cried unto him, he heard.

Psa 22:25  My praise shall be of thee in the great congregation: I will pay my vows before them that fear him.

Psa 22:26  The meek shall eat and be satisfied: they shall praise the LORD that seek him: your heart shall live for ever.

Psa 22:27  All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the LORD: and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee.

Psa 22:28  For the kingdom is the LORD'S: and he is the governor among the nations.

Psa 22:29  All they that be fat upon earth shall eat and worship: all they that go down to the dust shall bow before him: and none can keep alive his own soul.

Psa 22:30  A seed shall serve him; it shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation.

Psa 22:31  They shall come, and shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that he hath done this.

“Why hast thou forsaken me” - Such suffering!  Many in this audience have experienced the horror of losing a child in the market place, or in the woods, or near a stream.  For the moments of that child being gone it is probably similar to the pain that one might feel when they have lost a loved one and their emotional strain is like, “My God!”  This expresses the distress of the heart, the expression of the soul, the passion for a soul that is lost, a prodigal, and a sinner by choice without any certainty of another moment. 

None of us have the certainty of another moment.  Those that are saved have a comfort.  We know that there is an eternity over there as Bro Davis preached.

“Why art thou so far from helping me?”- Dear ones, His passion!  He didn’t do it for Himself.  “I cry in the daytime and in the night and you are silent.”  David wrote, “Thou art Holy.”

There is a great link between strength and praise.  David cried out in a difficult hour: “Oh thou that inhabits the praises of Israel.”

Verse 5.  They were not confused or mixed up.

Verse 6.  David felt despised.  Among the things that are very humiliating is for a son or a daughter to be despised by their mother or father.  You talk about the power of rejection: the pain of being despised.  David deemed it here as “I’m a worm, a reproach, despised of the people.” 

Jesus knew what it was like to be reproached by His own people.  How heartbreaking.  To think of going to your own and being rejected.  To think of a mother to a father or a daughter to a son, being rejected by their very own.  Jesus was.

Verse 7.  Laughed, the shaking of the head… History proves that Jesus went through it.  I’m not here to find fault with the passion of Christ as His suffering.  What I’m awestruck about is why did He suffer? I have never reached a position where I can even identify with His suffering.  I have heard and I believe that crucifixion is the most horrible death that one can experience.

Why did Jesus suffer?  We need to know what He went through.  I think of the travail of my mother first that I could be born and then again that I could be born again.  Think of Jesus and how He suffered that I could be born again.

The very thoughts that David experienced were given to mirror the suffering of Christ.  Remember how they mocked Him?  “If you are really the Christ, come down.”  He suffered, it was His passion but He didn’t suffer for Himself.

Verse 9-16.  David was inspired by God, he suffered greatly, but in respect to this 22 psalm and every prophecy that refers to Christ, the suffering of David was nothing compared to the suffering of Christ. 

They pierced His hands and feet.  I wouldn’t try to tell any of you that you haven’t suffered in life.  Those that I am preaching to have gone through much suffering.  We weep before God and look into the mirror and tell God that “Only you know the heartbreak that I feel, the pain.” 

Only Jesus can identify with the pain that you went through because He suffered, the just for the unjust.  It wasn’t because of Him trying to prove anything and it wasn’t as we would say, ‘just life.’  He was the son of God and came from heaven perfect and holy. 

Luke was inspired of God to write these words of the passion of Christ.  That passion of his hands being pierced; I get a sliver in my hand and it is a big deal.  I grab a rose bush that has thorns and think, “I need a better pair of gloves.”  Jesus’ hand was pierced. 

The passion of Christ, of His crown!  Most of us are thinking of buying a hat that will protect us as we think of mowing a lawn in the sun.  If you have dwarf trees you have them so that you don’t have to be on a ladder to pick the fruit.  As you mow the lawn you run into the trees and hit your head.  I think, “I need a strong hat to protect my head.” 

Jesus had a crown of thorns.  It was part of the passion.  He didn’t accept that crown of thorns for Himself and the benefit of becoming a king.  He was already the King of Kings. 

It could have been two nails or just one that went through His feet.  There were times when they were crucifying that they put both feet upon each other and used one big spike.  He wasn’t suffering for Himself.

Verse 18-20.  What a heart-cry of the sufferer, “Deliver my soul from the sword, from the power of the dog.”  I may deal with the thought of dog this evening.

“I will declare thy name unto the brothern.” – how the thought of Jesus was never to lift up Himself!  He said, “If I be lifted up I will draw all men unto me.”  We can sing, “Oh what a savior.”

Verse 24.  If you haven’t experienced being afflicted, you will.  It isn’t the thought of a self pity story or the thought that someone’s life is harder than someone else’s.  The thought is about encouraging you and me.  The passion of Christ is this, “That we are not despised or abhorred at the time of affliction.” 

Affliction doesn’t have to mean health problems.  It can, but it means in the Gospel Day anything that brings distress and discomfort to you.  It is a marvelous thing that in our suffering, Jesus already went through the passion, went through the suffering.  He suffered so that in our affliction we would not be abhorred. 

We know that the affliction of leprosy is paralleled with sin.  Some sin causes people to feel that, “I don’t want anything to do with that individual.”  It is wonderful that Jesus isn’t that way.  In His passion He went to that individual that even though their wrong choices positioned them so that they would be abhorred by whomever.  Jesus suffered for them.

When we think, “His passion!”  He did it all for the needy.  Most if not all when we heard Bro Rick’s prayer request, our hearts melted before God.  Not in an obnoxious way, choices were caused by people that helped her to make the choice.  Some of those very people abhor her for making choice that they helped her make.

Jesus, His passion was so that that girl could be restored to favor with God.  That is what the passion of Christ is all about.  It is about more than that; but it is about all of that.

Verse 25-29.  David wrote of what we know about.  It is wonderful to know of the kingdom.  We have a governor that is a king with the heart of a shepherd. 

Verse 29,30.  Every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess.

Isa 52:13  Behold, my servant shall deal prudently, he shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high.

Isa 52:14  As many were astonied at thee; his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men:

Jesus suffered so intense, His face revealed the sufferings.  He was smitten but not just smitten, spit upon but not just spit upon, he was crowned, he was scorned, He was crucified.

Why did Christ come to the world and suffer?

1Pe 3:18  For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:

This is why Jesus suffered; the reason for the passion of Christ:  “That He might bring us to God.”

Heb 9:14  How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

He offered Himself.

Rom 5:6  For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.

The passion of Christ had nothing to do with Christ drawing attention to Himself.  It had nothing to do with the thought of, “if He hadn’t made this or that mistake.”  No He made no mistake to warrant His suffering; He suffered for the ungodly.

Rom 5:11  And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.

Atonement means being returned to divine favor.  The passion of Christ was such that He suffered far beyond how I can make it real to you.  Only God and the Holy Spirit can help you understand how much ever of it.  I understand enough that my heart is greatly moved this morning.  “He suffered that much for me.” 

For whomever you are burdened this morning: your family and those that are not your family.  For each one that is saved, we know what it was to be out of favor with God.  We were without God; we were without strength and without hope. 

On a hill called Mt Calvary Jesus suffered what is known as part of the passion of Christ.  He did it so that we could receive atonement, returned to Divine favor.  For every request that has ever been made for a sinner, the passion of Christ paid the price so that they could return to Divine favor with God.

Rev 22:15  For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.

Throughout the scripture the term dogs often refers to false prophets.  Why would anyone want to be where any of these things are?  Sorcerers: You can study sorcery, witchcraft, magic or anything that deals with powers.  If it is not from God then it is devilish, that is what is without. 

Among the dogs and sorcerers are whoremongers, murderers, idolaters, and those that lie and make a lie.  I wouldn’t want to be among that that is without.

I see this morning the passion of Christ.  He suffered in my place.  I cannot tell you this morning of everything that I would be guilty of if I had continued in sin.  My life would not be a pleasant story. 

The issue of being guilty in sin is a common denominator that everyone that reaches the age of accountability has; they realize that “My sin could cause me to be lost forever.”  I had the opportunity because of the passion of Christ to return to Divine favor.

Everyone in this audience that is saved has a vow to keep to God.  We haven’t preached upon the suffering that the father went through while Jesus was on the cross.  We know the suffering was just as real.  Jesus suffered in the place of another. 

If sin has taken you where you didn’t want to go, Jesus is not on the cross this morning.  He is sitting on the right hand of the father. 

While He was on earth he said, “come unto me.”  The first time He said it he didn’t have the scars in His hands.  This morning He is saying, “Come.”