Do
we have any reality TV fans here this morning?
While I am NOT a fan, there is one show in the mix that caught my
attention. It was a show in which the
executive was removed from his corner office to serve in the low level
positions throughout his corporation.
The whole ploy for people to watch the show was that, in our culture
today, it is absolutely absurd to think that a high level executive would sink
to the level of sorting mail or serving a mocca
latte. The previews attempted to peak
your interest with the boss’s bumbling attempts to do the things he had always
expected his employees to do with excellence.
The
passage we just read describes how Jesus’ method of operation is a stark
contrast to our culture. The Son of God
left the glory of heaven – his corner office on the VERY top floor – to be born
in a manger and become one of us. If it
is difficult to understand why an executive would go through such a humbling
experience, then it would seem nearly impossible to make sense of why God would
humble himself to come in the flesh and walk among us. And yet, did you hear the way the writer of
Hebrews begins this explanation? “In
bringing many sons to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and
through whom everything exists, should make the author of their salvation
perfect through suffering.” “It was
fitting”? The Message paraphrase
says, “It made good sense.” How
in the world could it be fitting for the Son of God to have diaper rash? How could it make good sense for God himself
to be rejected by his friends and persecuted by his enemies? How could it be fitting that the perfect,
sinless Son of God would be spat upon, flogged, stoned, and eventually
crucified upon a cross? In the verses
that follow, we find an answer to the question that will puzzle any person with
the slightest bit of common sense: Why
did the Son of God become one of us?
First of all, HE CAME TO IDENTIFY WITH US. Unlike the executives in that Reality TV show, God has walked in our shoes. The Son of God took on flesh and blood so that we could be brothers in every sense of the word, sharing in the same kinds of pain, suffering, difficulty and temptation. Jesus came so He could say to us about every detail of life, “Been there. Done that.” God, how can I go on living with this huge pimple on the tip of my nose? “Been there. Done that.” God, nobody understands me. I feel all alone. “Been there. Done that. Let me help.” God, my loved one was murdered unjustly? “I’ve experienced the same pain. Let me help you through your grief.” God, one of my closest friends betrayed me. God, my physical pain seems unbearable. “Been there. Done that. I will walk with you through the dark days.” God is not some distant, aloof deity that cannot understand. Because Jesus was fully human, He can fully identify with every aspect of our humanity.
It makes sense, at least to some degree, that the Son of God came to identify with us. But the second reason for Jesus’ coming is more troubling. HE CAME TO DIE. God’s plan, even before that first Christmas day, was that Jesus would be born to die on a cross. The writer of Hebrews describes it this way, “… that God should make the author of their salvation perfect through suffering.” The word “author” is also translated as “pioneer” or “perfect leader” in other versions. It carries with it the idea that Jesus was the only one who could blaze a trail which could be followed by others. He was perfect already. But he could not be the perfect pioneer until He had traveled fully the path that he called others to follow. One commentator writes, “He did not need suffering for his own salvation, but it was indispensable if others were to be saved.”
This passage highlights at least four amazing works of God accomplished through the cross of Christ. Verses 14-15 describe the first two. “Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death–that is, the devil– 15and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.” Through his dying, Jesus accomplished Satan’s Destruction and Our Liberation. Death is the ultimate consequence of sin and disobedience - it is Satan’s highest trump card. When Jesus died and then rose again, he demonstrated that God has the power to trump even death. So we can say, like the Apostle Paul, “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”55“Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?”(1 Corinthians 15:54-55).
Does
anyone, like me, have a slight phobia of bees?
I know they are part of God’s creation, but I don’t like them. Sometimes I can be a little bit of sissy –
Jodie might say a lot of a sissy - running away from bees and swatting at them
like they are going to kill me. Why do I
fear bees? It’s simple: I’ve been stung by them repeatedly and it
hurts. But if you take the stingers out
of all the bees in the world, I would have no more fear of bees. I would flick them away without giving them a
second thought. Through the cross, Jesus
has taken the stinger out of Satan and his works. He has set us free from the fear of death,
the fear of Satan, and the fear of sin.
When we are free from fear, we are free to fully live. I believe there are way too many Christians
who are acting like sissies when it comes to Satan and sin. We swat and scream and run around frantically
because we’re afraid we’re going to get stung.
Sometimes we’re even afraid to talk about sin in our churches. We’re going to talk about sin this morning. .
. But don’t be afraid. Jesus has taken
the sting out of sin and death.
Verse
17 continues, “For this reason he had to be made like his brothers in
every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in
service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the
people.” Jesus’ dieing also
accomplished our Salvation. The role
of the High Priest in the Old Testament was to enter into the Holy of Holies –
the most holy place in the temple where God’s presence was manifested – to
offer the sacrifice of atonement for the people of
But the work of Christ through the cross does not stop there. Jesus’ death also accomplishes our Sanctification. It is one thing to be forgiven; it is something entirely different to be sanctified. In verse 11, Christians are described as “those who are made holy,” which can also be translated as “those who are sanctified.” Holiness and sanctification are biblical equivalents. To be holy, when it refers to people, carries with it two connotations. First, it describes being set apart for God’s purposes. Secondly, it describes being morally clean. One commentator writes that this holiness is “more than sacred, more than worthy or honorable, more than pure and free from defilement. [This holiness] is more comprehensive. It is characteristically godlikeness” (Vines Expository Dictionary, Hagios entry).
Holiness
or sanctification is one of the central themes of Scripture. From beginning to end the story of God’s Word
is about a holy God of love creating for himself a holy people who can have
intimate fellowship with a holy God. 1
Peter
Jesus
came to die to accomplish Satan’s destruction along with our liberation,
salvation, and sanctification. The truth
of the matter is that many people in churches across
So, how do we
actually experience the life Jesus offers through the cross? How do we experience Satan’s destruction
along with our liberation, salvation, and sanctification? The answer is simple; but it is not easy, and
that is why we so often fail to live this abundant life. Here is a summary of this whole message in
one sentence for you. Jesus came to
identify with us and die in the flesh so that we could identify with him and
die to the flesh. Or said another
way, He identified with us and died for our sin so that we could identify with Him
and die to sin. Jesus is the
pioneer. He has demonstrated all that
God asks of us. Jesus’ identification
and dieing were an expression of His holiness.
Our identification and dieing are the means to experiencing His holiness
in us. There are no shortcuts or
detours. This is the only way to be made
holy. We must die.
By identifying
with Jesus on the cross, we are faced with the ultimate consequences of our
sinfulness. One of my constant prayers
for our church right now is that God would give us a deep sensitivity to sin
and a desire to turn away from sin and toward God. Until we call sin sin,
we will not experience the abundant life God longs for us to have. I want you to understand that I am preaching
to myself as much as I am to you. I am hungry
to experience more of God, but God is revealing to me that I need to take
seriously the call to holiness if I want more of a holy God. There is a prayer out of a great book
entitled Holiness ~ The Heart God Purifies, that I have
been praying almost daily over the past couple of months.
O God, Show me more of your
holiness. Show me more of my
sinfulness. Help me to hate sin and to
love righteousness as you do. Grant me a
deeper conviction of sin and a more thorough spirit of repentance. And make me holy as you are holy.
This kind of
prayer will change us from the inside out.
I know for me, I have begun to be more convicted about specific sins –
like gluttony, pride, and self-centeredness.
I wonder what could happen if each of us began praying that prayer
daily? I wonder what would happen if we
really began encountering God as holy? I
wonder what sins God would reveal that have become commonplace and acceptable? I wonder how God would eliminate apathy and
revive our passion to be transformed to be more like Jesus? I wonder …
Brokenness and
repentance over our sin are the beginning.
The next crucial step is to die to sin and self. The apostle Paul writes, “For we know that
our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away
with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin – because anyone who has died
has been freed from sin” (Romans 6:6-7).
In the physical world birth precedes life, but Jesus has a way of
turning things upside down. In the
Christian life, death precedes life.
Only through dieing to sin and self, are we set free to experience the
kind of life in Christ that most Christians have only dreamed about. God can free us from life-controlling
addictions and life-dominating sins. God
can make our bad tempers and selfish attitudes a thing of the past. God can fill us with such love that marriages
will be renewed, parents and children will get along and even enjoy each other,
and self-sacrifice will become the norm in all our relationships. God can give us the courage to let go of
bitterness and freely forgive people who have wounded us deeply. God can transform us from being constantly
stressed out to experiencing a peace that passes all understanding.
I’ll share with
you from my own experience, that you could give me
verifiable proof that there is no such thing as heaven and I still would choose
to live for Jesus 11 times out of 10 and twice on Sunday’s. As I continue to grow in my relationship with
Christ, I am realizing more and more that Jesus did not die merely to save me
from the eternal consequences of my sins; He came to save me from myself in the
here and now. Perhaps I am not the only
person who has tried to live life on my own terms – to profess that Christ is
the Lord of my life while still holding on to bad attitudes or bad habits or
secret sins. What I am telling you
today, with all the love and compassion and urgency I can muster, is that it is
not worth it. Every time I have, by the
grace of God, finally let go of things I have been holding on to I have
discovered that the life Jesus died for me to live has been far better than the
life I was choosing to live.
Have any of you
heard Tim McGraw’s new song entitled, “”Live Like You
Were Dying”? Most of the song is sung
from the perspective of a 43 year old man who just received the news that he
was dying from sort of disease. In the
song, the dying man’s friend asks him, what did you do when it finally sank in
that this could be the end? Listen to
his response: “I went sky diving. I went Rocky Mountain climbing. I went 2.7 seconds on a bull name fumanchu. And I
loved deeper. And I spoke sweeter. And I
gave forgiveness that I’d been denying.
And he said one day I hope you get a chance to live like you were
dying.” I think the title of that song
summarizes the essence of the Christian life.
I think it is just what Jesus would say to each of us this morning. Someday I hope you get a chance to live
like you are dying. In fact, I think
he would say, Today I hope you take this
chance to begin living like you are dying.
Because only then will you live life to the fullest.
The remainder of
the service today is going to provide each of us an opportunity to respond to
God’s Word. I want to invite the
Praise Band to come and prepare to lead us.
Whether you came today with no kind of relationship with Christ or you
have been a Christian for 80 years, the invitation is the same. Jesus invites you to identify with Him on the
cross – to acknowledge your sinfulness – and to die to sin and self – to
surrender your life completely to him.
Brokenness, repentance, and surrender are the ongoing marks of the
Christian life. Our choice to live such
a life begins in a moment, but that choice is sustained by choosing to
surrender again and again and again.
These are the basics of the Christian life. This is our opportunity to respond to our
holy God. You can respond through worshipful
singing. You can stand or sit. You can pray in your seat or you can come
kneel at this altar in prayer. There
will be pastors and others available to pray with you if you would like them
to, or you may just want to be alone in God’s presence. He came to die and now He invites you to come
and die. Through dieing, He promises to
give you a new kind of life that is incomparable to any other kind of
life. I want to invite you now to a time
of silent prayer – a time for you to allow God to search your heart – a time
for you to seek God’s forgiveness and to offer your life totally surrendered to
God.