This Jesus Delivered Up

Well, this sermon, as I said, was preached by Peter.

It was delivered exactly 50 days

after the crucifixion of Jesus.

But the backdrop of the sermon

was this unique outpouring of the Holy Spirit of God

on the disciples in Jerusalem.

And we're not gonna take the time

to explore all of that tonight.

You can do that in your own time,

reading even just the first 13 verses of this chapter.

We'll tell you what you need to know.

But basically what had happened

was the disciples, after Jesus had ascended back to heaven,

were in Jerusalem, as Jesus had commanded,

awaiting on the gift of the Holy Spirit

that Jesus had promised.

And as they're there praying in the upper room,

a unique outpouring of the Holy Spirit,

different than anything anyone had ever seen before,

this outpouring of the Holy Spirit comes on the disciples

and it's witnessed by people all over the city in Jerusalem.

And so you can imagine with such a magnificent display,

the people that are witnessing this,

that are witnessing the apostles experience this moment,

begin to ask some questions.

And we find in verse number 12

that they do actually specifically ask that.

Look at it with me.

Verse number 12,

Some people assumed that what was actually taking place

was that all the apostles,

maybe perhaps out of some particular depression

or just a riotous living at this moment in their lives,

some of them began to spread the word

that all of the apostles,

the followers of Jesus were drunk.

And so Peter in verse 14 begins to step up

and he brings some clarification

to exactly what is taking place.

It tells us right there in verse 14,

Peter standing up with the 11,

lifted up his voice and addressed them

in order that he could bring some clarity

to exactly what they were seeing.

And I want you to look with me at verses 16 to 18.

Here's what he says.

Peter says,

This is what was uttered through the prophet Joel.

And in the last days,

it shall be, God declares,

that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh

and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy.

Your young men shall see visions

and your old men shall dream dreams.

Even on my male servants and female servants in those days,

I will pour out my spirit and they shall prophesy.

So what exactly is it that Peter does?

Well, he takes the prophet Joel as his text for the day

and he stands up before the people

and he proclaims that that day

was the inauguration of the last days.

The last days, as Joel said in his quotation

in verse number 17,

the last days that Joel said

would include a pouring out of the spirit of God

on his people.

But that's a problem for the Jews

that are listening to Peter give that explanation.

Because the Jews understood

that whenever this pouring out of the spirit would come,

that it would have to be preceded

by the Christ, the Messiah.

And so immediately,

Peter knew that they would be perplexed

by this statement.

How could this be the inauguration of the last days

if Messiah has not actually come?

It was the Messiah who the scriptures had said

would actually establish the kingdom of God

and would be responsible for the pouring out of God's spirit.

So you can see now where Peter's going with this.

So he preaches about the crucifixion

and the resurrection of Jesus

to prove that Jesus is Messiah

and that Messiah had come

and that what the people were witnessing on that day

was evidence of the fact that Messiah had come

and these last days had begun.

And this is the gospel preaching

that characterized all of the apostles' teaching

in the New Testament.

You'll recognize this from Paul's words

in 1 Corinthians 15.

He says,

Now I would remind you, brothers,

of the gospel I preached to you.

And then he goes on to define that gospel.

That Christ died for our sins

according to the scriptures,

that he was buried,

and that he raised on the third day

according to the scriptures.

This is the gospel of Jesus.

And it is the very reason

that Christianity exists.

Were it not for the crucifixion

and resurrection of Jesus,

none of us likely would have ever even heard the name Jesus.

Christianity would not exist.

We would likely not know one another

and we would certainly have no reason

to be gathered together here

on a beautiful spring evening in April.

But this was Peter's aim.

He was showing Jesus as the Messiah

by affirming the reality

and necessity of the crucifixion and resurrection.

And tonight we're going to focus in on his thoughts

about the crucifixion.

Three things I'd like for you to see

in these verses we just read.

The first one is this.

I want you to see the divine power of Jesus.

The divine power of Jesus.

Look with me again at verse 22.

Men of Israel, hear these words.

Perhaps we could apply that personally tonight.

Men and women of Lake Norman, Charlotte, Cornelius,

wherever you're from, hear these words.

Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God

with mighty works and wonders and signs

that God did through him in your midst

as you yourselves know.

The divine power of Jesus.

So Peter begins with an element of Jesus' life

that could not actually be denied.

It was his miraculous works.

Now he lists three different elements here.

He says there are mighty works.

He says there are wonders and there are signs.

And Peter doesn't mean to say

that these are three different types of miracles,

but they are three different perspectives

of the same actions.

Let me explain.

Mighty works comes from the Greek word dunamis.

It's where we get the English word dynamite.

It's explosive power is the meaning of this word.

Mighty works, explosive, supernatural

is the implications here.

And it describes the powerful nature

of the things that Jesus did.

That's the mighty works.

And then he says,

we could also consider these things as wonders,

which refers to the way that people stood in awe

and marveled at the power

that Jesus displayed in his miracles.

And then he uses this third word, signs.

Signs is exactly that.

They refer, they point us somewhere

and it refers to the primary purpose

of the Lord's demonstrations of power.

Have you ever asked yourself,

why did Jesus do all of those miracles?

And indeed, he had a compassionate heart

that desired to help those

who were suffering and downtrodden,

but that was not the primary purpose

of the miracles of Jesus.

The primary purpose of his power

was to reveal his identity,

who he is as the Messiah

and the Son of God.

John Pohill said,

throughout Acts,

the terms wonders

only occurs in conjunction with signs,

a testimony to the fact

that mere marvels

have no value in themselves

except as they point beyond themselves

to the divine power behind them

and so lead to faith.

That was the purpose of Jesus' miracles.

And that's where Peter leads off in his sermon.

He says,

men, listen,

this is what Joel said would happen

and let me tell you why it's happening.

Because this Jesus came

and God attested to him

by many mighty works

and wonders and signs.

Two things about this

I would like to make note of.

First, Jesus' miracles

were publicly displayed.

They were publicly displayed.

Look back with me at verse 22.

Jesus of Nazareth,

a man attested to you by God.

Attested to you by God.

Well, attest, you know what that means?

It means to put something on display.

It means to be a witness

to a particular fact or event.

And Peter's point,

using those words in particular,

is to say that God the Father

has put his son on display.

And the way that he has put him on display

is through these mighty works

and wonders and signs.

God bore witness to Jesus' identity

through supernatural miracles.

miracles.

That's what Jesus was doing.

That's what God was doing

through his son.

And each of us can probably think

of several incredible miracles of Jesus

that maybe we love to think on

or study after.

Even if you have very little knowledge

of the Bible,

you've probably heard of some of the things

that Jesus did.

Let me just remind you of a few of them.

They're amazing.

The very first one ever recorded for us

in the narrative is in John chapter two.

And it had to do with a wedding feast.

It was in the little town of Cana in Galilee.

Jesus had gone there along with his disciples

who were with him.

His mother was there.

Perhaps many people from his family was there.

It was a wedding feast.

Likely has lasted up to seven days.

These wedding feasts would last.

And they ran out of wine.

And Jesus' mom comes to him and says,

you should do something about this.

And what does Jesus do?

This is the first miracle recorded in the scripture.

He tells the servants.

He doesn't do it himself.

He tells other people.

He says, take these jars, six of them.

Jars that hold 20 to 30 gallons worth of water

or wine or whatever you're putting in it.

Take these six jars and go fill them

to the brim with water.

And that's exactly what they did.

After they filled them up with water,

knowing what they filled them with,

they bring them back to the wedding feast.

Jesus still doesn't touch it.

He doesn't do anything with it.

And he just tells the people

that had just filled them with water,

he says, now dip some out.

And they go to dip some out.

And it's not water anymore.

It's wine.

It's amazing.

Just like that, he doesn't even touch it.

Does it say anything?

Just like that,

we see this supernatural miracle of Jesus.

Perhaps you remember that one.

I know you probably remember the time

that he's on the hillside near Bethsaida,

just north of Galilee.

He had gone there with his disciples

to try to actually get a little bit of rest.

It had been a busy few days.

But the people could see him.

They could see him travel on the boat

around the north side of the Sea of Galilee.

And they rushed over to where Jesus was.

5,000 of them.

And they sit on a hillside.

And they listen all day as Jesus teaches them.

Exhausted as he might have been.

He continues to teach the people

because he said they were like sheep without a shepherd.

Somebody had to teach them.

Somebody had to help them.

But there was no place to buy food in that area.

It's a remote area.

And Jesus gathers his disciples.

And what does he say?

He says, you guys really need to give these people

some food.

They've got nothing to eat.

He said the disciples didn't have any food either.

But they went out and they found a little boy.

And he had five pieces of bread.

And he had two pieces of fish.

And they brought it to Jesus.

And they said, this is all we got.

And Jesus takes five pieces of bread,

two pieces of fish,

and in front of thousands of people.

This is not a secret miracle

where he could go behind and backstage somewhere

where he had a team full of chefs

who were secretly preparing all these things.

This is a hillside in Bethsaida.

And in front of all of these people,

Jesus has them sit down

and some people in groups of 50,

some people in groups of 100.

And he just begins to break off the bread

and break off the fish.

And somehow through his power,

he's able to feed more than 5,000 people

to the point that the people were all satisfied.

They were filled.

They ate as much as they could eat.

And then they had 12 baskets of food left over.

It's amazing.

What Jesus did was absolutely amazing.

But not all of his miracles had to do with food.

Some of his miracles had to do with other things.

They demonstrated in one case,

many cases actually,

his power over disease.

We read in Mark,

this has been a while ago now,

but we read in Mark chapter one,

you'll remember,

Jesus is teaching somewhere near Capernaum.

And a man with a deadly leprous disease,

contagious disease,

comes in the midst of the crowd.

All the people began to run away from this man

because they don't want to die either.

And what is it that Jesus does with the man?

He embraces the man.

Everyone else runs.

They want to avoid him.

Not Jesus.

He embraces him.

And immediately as he touches the man,

the man is in front of the eyes

of all the people that are there,

they see immediately,

he's cleansed of this leprosy.

It's like he was never sick to begin with.

Jesus had power over disease.

Some of his miracles showed

that he had power over nature.

Remember as he's on the boat

on the Sea of Galilee

with his 12 disciples.

This was right after the feeding

of the 5,000 perhaps,

or it was somewhere along those lines

around that same time frame.

They're out there

and a big storm comes up on the sea,

remember?

These men who,

some of them had been fishermen

their whole life,

are so scared at the size of this storm

that they think they're going to die.

Jesus is asleep in the back of the boat.

And they wake him up

and what is it they say?

Master, do you not care that we're dying?

We're going to die.

And Jesus stands up

and he says three words.

Peace be still.

And the Bible says that

this storm that was raging so much

that the water is filling the boat

and the boat is beginning to fall apart

that all of a sudden

the sea just becomes like glass.

The wind becomes silent.

He harnesses creation

with the sound of his voice.

It's amazing.

He has power over the spirits of the world.

Remember the little boy

whose father had brought his son

who had been possessed by a demon

that had tortured him

since he was very young

and he brought him to the disciples

and the disciples couldn't do anything about it.

And Jesus comes along

and he heals the boy

and he cast out this demon.

Over and over and over

we see the testimony of the scriptures.

Hundreds and thousands of these moments

that Jesus displayed these miraculous powers.

So many times that John

at the end of his gospel says this.

John chapter 21 and verse 25.

John 21 · chapter mention

Now there are also many other things

that Jesus did.

Were every one of them to be written

I suppose that the world itself

could not contain the books

that would be written.

What's John's point?

Jesus did so much

we can't even write it all down.

And it wasn't private.

It was publicly displayed.

God attesting to Jesus.

God displaying his son to the world

through mighty works

and wonders and signs.

It's not only publicly displayed

it's publicly acknowledged.

Publicly acknowledged.

Look with me again at verse 22.

Jesus of Nazareth

a man attested to you by God

with mighty works and wonders and signs

that God did through him

in your midst.

And then Peter throws this in here.

This little clause here is so awesome.

As you yourselves know

he says.

It's not only that these miracles

were on display publicly.

They were actually acknowledged

by the people publicly.

They weren't performed in secret.

The miraculous power of Jesus

was undenied

in first century Israel.

It's not even that it was undeniable.

It's that it was undenied.

Nobody denied his works.

They couldn't.

There were too many of them.

There were too many people

that saw them.

The people acknowledged.

Yes.

He has tremendous power.

People traveled from countries

outside of Israel

to see it.

To experience it.

Even Jesus' enemies

who eventually prepared the way

for his execution

did not deny the fact

of his mighty works.

John chapter 3.

John 3 · chapter mention

Remember Nicodemus

comes to Jesus

under the cover of night.

He's a Pharisee

and he says

and John tells us

now there was a man

of the Pharisees

named Nicodemus

a ruler of the Jews.

This man came to Jesus

by night and said to him

Rabbi

we know you are a teacher

that has come from God

for no one can do these signs

that you do

unless God is with him.

That's the testimony

of Jesus' enemies even.

So Peter's first point

established Jesus' identity

as the Messiah

by pointing to his divine power

as the Son of God

which again

was a key component

of the apostles' witness.

You still with me?

Still with me?

The divine power of Jesus.

Number two.

The divine purpose of Jesus.

The divine purpose.

Verse 23.

This Jesus, Peter says

delivered up

according to the definite plan

and foreknowledge of God

you crucified

and killed

by the hands

of lawless men.

Peter essentially says

this Jesus

the one attested to you

by God

through mighty works

and wonders

and signs

is the same one

that you crucified.

God put his Son

on display

the long-awaited Messiah

that you've been looking for

and your response

was to kill him

Peter says.

And we could stop right there

and we could chalk up

Peter's sermon here

50 days after the crucifixion

we could chalk it up

as a bitter airing

of grievance

against the Jews

who put his favorite teacher

to death.

But that's neither Peter's point

nor is it his tone in this.

There's an essential note

in this verse

that introduces

an important question.

Here's the question.

Who is actually responsible

for Jesus' crucifixion?

Who's responsible for this?

Who did this?

And the answer is here.

Let's walk it backwards though.

How about the Roman executioners?

The lawless men

Peter says.

Roman executioners

they were actually responsible

for carrying out

Jesus' crucifixion.

Did they crucify Jesus?

Yes.

But there was a step

before the Roman executioners.

It was Pilate.

We read about him

in John 18 and 19.

He's the Roman governor.

He's the one responsible

for sentencing Jesus

to death on a cross.

Did he crucify Jesus?

Yes.

But there's a step

before Pilate.

There's the Jewish leaders.

They were responsible

for handing Jesus over

to Pilate

and demanding

that he be executed

as we already read.

Did they crucify Jesus?

Yes.

But there's a step

before them.

There's Judas Iscariot.

He's the one

that betrayed the Lord

for 30 pieces of silver.

He's the one

that was responsible

for setting up

the arrest for Jesus.

He assisted it.

Did he crucify Jesus?

Yes.

All of these people

played a role

in Jesus' death.

But it is God the Father

who Peter ultimately credits

for the Lord's crucifixion.

Did those people do it?

Were they culpable

for their wrong?

Yes.

But it was God

who did this.

It was God's will

for the Christ

to be crucified.

He carried out

that will

through the work

of men,

the evil work of men,

without violating

their will.

But it was God

who did this.

What's amazing

to consider

is that God

used the wickedness

wickedness of these men

to provide a means

of redemption

for those men.

There's a song

by City of Light.

It's called Jerusalem.

There's a line

in that song

that I love so much.

It says,

See the king

who made the sun

and the moon

and shining stars.

let the soldiers

hold and nail him down

so that he could save them.

He uses their wickedness.

He uses their will

in which they are responsible

and culpable

in order that he might accomplish

his will

of actually providing redemption

for the very people

who crucified him.

That's an amazing purpose.

That's what Jesus did.

Who crucified Jesus?

Well, ultimately,

God did.

The crucifixion of Jesus

was not God

making the best

out of a bad situation.

Peter says,

This happened

according to the definite plan

and foreknowledge of God.

It was always God's plan

and purpose

for the Messiah.

In fact,

on three different occasions

at least,

Jesus explicitly told

his disciples

what would happen.

We've studied this

in the Gospel of Mark.

Mark chapter 8,

Mark 8:31

verse 31.

He began to teach them

that the Son of Man

must suffer many things,

be rejected by the elders

and the chief priests

and the scribes

and be killed

and after three days

rise again.

He said this plainly,

Mark said.

Mark chapter 9,

Mark 9:31

verse 31.

He was teaching

his disciples,

saying to them,

The Son of Man

is going to be delivered

into the hands of men

and they will kill him.

And when he is killed,

after three days,

he will rise.

That's number two.

Mark chapter 10,

Mark 10:33

verse 33.

Taking the twelve again,

he began to tell them

what was to happen to him,

saying,

We are going up

to Jerusalem.

The Son of Man

will be delivered

over to the chief priest

and the scribes.

They will condemn him

to death

and deliver him

over to the Gentiles.

They will mock him

and spit on him

and flog him

and kill him.

And after three days,

he will rise.

This was always

the plan of God

and Jesus knew it.

That's why he could tell

the disciples

over and over again,

This is what's going to happen.

This is why I came.

Just because it was

the eternal plan of God

doesn't mean Jesus

was an unwilling participant.

In perfect union

with the Father,

the Son,

willingly laid down

his life for us.

Hebrews chapter 12,

Hebrews 12 · chapter mention

in verse 2.

The writer says,

We are looking to Jesus,

the founder and perfecter

of our faith,

who for the joy

that was set before him

endured the cross.

The joy.

It was his joy

to lay down his life

for sinners.

It was his pleasure

to give his life

as a ransom for us.

He wasn't an unwilling

participant in this.

He was in perfect union

with the Father.

And he said so himself.

John chapter 10.

John 10 · chapter mention

Jesus said,

I am the good shepherd.

The good shepherd

lays down his life

for the sheep.

And for this reason,

the Father loves me

because I lay down my life

that I may take it up again.

No one takes it from me,

Jesus said.

I lay it down.

I have authority

to lay it down.

I have authority

to take it up again.

This charge I have received

from my Father.

We read it a moment ago

in his interaction

with Pilate.

Pilate says,

Don't you realize

that I'm the one

in the position

of power here?

I'm the one

that can set you free?

Pilate says,

And then the one

in the real position

of power responds

in humility.

And he says,

You would have no power

in this moment

if I had not given it

to you.

His life wasn't taken.

His life was laid down.

It's a glorious purpose.

The definite plan

of God.

God.

But let's address

why it's necessary.

We can understand

the things

that we've said already,

but that doesn't actually

answer the question

of why did it

have to happen?

Why did it have to happen?

Let's deal with that.

The crucifixion

was a substitution.

The crucifixion

was a substitution.

This is why

it had to happen.

Jesus took the place

of every person

who would believe

and follow him.

Now when we say

that Jesus took our place,

that he died our death,

we don't mean

that every one of us

is destined

to die

by means

of crucifixion.

In that sense,

Jesus died

in the form

of an execution,

a criminal's death

and crucifixion,

that we then get

to escape

such a

torturous

and gruesome death.

That's not what

we mean by that.

It means that

we escape

the wrath of God

against our sin.

It's not that

we escape the cross.

We escape something

far worse

than our cross.

We escape

the eternal wrath

of God.

He endured

the wrath of God

so that we could

experience

the peace

of God.

His death

was an atonement,

an atonement

for sin

that was promised

again

and again

and again

in the scriptures.

that's why

it was necessary.

Had Jesus

not died

this death,

we would have

no hope

of forgiveness.

He took

our place

and I

know we talk

about this

all the time

because what else

would we talk

about?

This is the reason

that we gather.

you realize

when Jesus

when you come

to Christ

in faith

and you cry

out to God

for mercy

it's not

that God

looks at you

and decides

okay

I'm just

going to turn

a blind eye

to the sin

you've committed

and we're just

going to start

with a clean slate.

That is not

what God

does.

He can't

do that.

You understand?

He can't

do that.

That would

violate

His holiness.

It would

violate

His justice.

He must

judge

every sin.

When we

come to

Christ

in faith

it's not

that He

turns a

blind eye

to our sin

it's that

He takes

the sin

that we've

committed

and He

puts it

on His

perfect

sinless

Son.

Christ's

death

was not

a tragedy

it was

a substitution.

That's

why this

is Good

Friday.

I laughed

at Andy

today.

He texted

me while

he was

working at

the greenhouse

and he said

is it weird

that I've been

telling people

happy crucifixion

day?

I said

yeah that's

weird.

That's weird.

Because what's

happy about a

crucifixion?

Well in this

case

it's that it

was the

crucifixion

the wrath

that I

deserve

that you

deserve

but the

perfect

righteous

Son of

God

took

my

place.

That's

why it

was

necessary

and by

the way

this is

pointed to

over and

over in

the scriptures

it was

always

necessary

for the

Christ

to do

this.

Think

about it.

We talked

about this

in our

Lakeside

Connect

group a

couple

weeks

ago.

Remember

in your

study of

Genesis

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

chapter 3

the first

sin.

Remember

Adam and

Eve?

I said

this is

always weird

to me

especially

when I was

a kid

I'd read

this

they were

naked

and they

didn't

realize

it wasn't

that they

didn't

realize

it's

that they

didn't

care

but then

as soon

as they

sin

all of a

sudden

they realize

their nakedness

and they're

ashamed

of it.

Their

nakedness

in that

moment

is symbolic

of their

guilt.

It's not

about their

body in that

moment

it's about

their shame

their guilt

for sinning

against God

and what

is it that

Adam and

Eve did.

They

immediately

began to

work as

hard as

they could

to cover

their guilt

to cover

their nakedness

to cover

their shame

so they

sewed together

some fig

leagues

but no matter

how hard

you try

your efforts

will never

be good

enough

to cover

your guilt.

So what

does God

do for

Adam and

Eve?

God

provides

a covering

for them

a covering

of skins

which meant

that the

first death

had to

take place

God

sacrifices

an animal

in order

to cover

Adam and

Eve's

nakedness.

What is

that a

picture of?

It's a

picture of

atonement.

No matter

how hard

you work

no matter

how many

times you

come to

these special

services

or services

on a Sunday

no matter

how much

money you

might give

or how many

good things

you do

in your

life

no matter

what type

of good

credit

you amass

for yourself

it will

always be

fig leaves

it will

never be

good enough

to cover

your guilt

God

has to

provide

a covering

for us

we are

incapable

of doing

that

ourselves

and he

did that

in Jesus

Jesus

was the

sacrifice

to cover

our

guilt

and we

see it

over and

over in

the Old

Testament

remember

Passover

that's

what it

was

when the

angel of

death

came

through

Egypt

he only

passed

over

those

with

the

blood

on

the

doorpost

what is

that all

about

atonement

when God

established

the sacrificial

system

over and

over

the Jews

would have

you read

Leviticus

you'll see

that they

were

they had

to sacrifice

a lot

because one

sacrifice

was never

enough

they had

to continually

bring these

sacrifices

for atonement

but Christ

was the

once and

for all

atonement

for our

sins

the divine

purpose

of Jesus

crucifixion

was to

atone

for you

and for

me

and this

was the

plan

of God

and it

was fulfilled

joyfully

by Jesus

of Nazareth

it's a

divine

purpose

we see

his power

we see

his purpose

all the

love that

drew

salvation

plan

all the

grace

that brought

it down

to man

all the

mighty

gulf

that God

did span

at Calvary

or my

favorite

because the

sinless

savior

died

my

sinful

soul

is

counted

free

for God

the just

is satisfied

to look

on him

but pardon

me

that's the

necessity

of the

cross

finally we

see the

divine

perfection

of Jesus

we've seen

his power

we've seen

his purpose

now I want

you to

notice

his

perfection

verse 24

God

raised

him up

loosing

the

pangs

of death

because

it was

not

possible

for him

to be

held

by it

God

raised

him up

and we're

going to

spend our

time on

Sunday

focused on

the resurrection

we're going

to deal

with this

verse

again on

that day

but there's

something about

Peter's

statement that

is necessary

as we

consider the

cross

notice what

he says

it was not

possible

for him

to be

held

by it

that is

death

it was

not

possible

for him

to be

held

by

death

but what

does that

mean

does that

mean

it's not

possible

for Jesus

to remain

dead

we might

come up

with a few

different answers

for this

we may say

well we've

already

understood

his divine

power

maybe his

power

was greater

and that

would be

true

maybe we

would look

to the

fulfillment

of the

scriptures

and say

well he

couldn't

stay

dead

death

had no

claim

on him

because

he was

always

the purpose

of the

Messiah

to die

and rise

and that

would be

true

but there's

another

option

not even

an option

it's just

in addition

to those

things

I want

you to

consider

for just

a moment

Jesus

had no

sin

for which

death

could claim

him

you realize

death is

a result

of sin

but Jesus

was the

sinless

son of

God

death

had no

hold

on him

he

willingly

laid down

his life

for sins

he

was the

spotless

lamb

foreshadowed

by all

of those

old

testament

sacrifice

he

was the

spotless

lamb

that we

will

remember

symbolically

in this

supper

tonight

and that's

what

John

the

Baptist

said

John

chapter

one

in

verse

twenty

nine

the next

day

John

saw

Jesus

coming

and he

said

behold

the

lamb

of God

who takes

away

the sins

of the

world

and in

Hebrews

chapter

nine

the writer

of Hebrews

using this

metaphoric

symbolic

language

of the

sacrificial

system

in the

old

testament

says

Jesus

entered

once

for all

into the

holy

places

not by

means of

the blood

of goats

and calves

but by

the means

of his

own

blood

thus

securing

an

eternal

redemption

for if

the blood

of goats

and bulls

and the

sprinkling

of defiled

persons

with the

ashes

of a

heifer

sanctify

the

purification

of the

flesh

how much

more

the writer

says

will the

blood

of Christ

who through

the spirit

offered

himself

without

blemish

to God

and here's

my point

the

resurrection

of Jesus

proves

that his

death

on the

cross

was a

sufficient

sacrifice

for your

sin

it was

enough

not for

a moment

but for

eternity

the fact

that he

rose from

the dead

means that

you can

trust

him

alone

to save

you

to provide

forgiveness

to give

peace

with God

to provide

eternal life

his resurrection

proves that

he can do

that and that

only he

can do

that

without the

resurrection

of Jesus

his crucifixion

would be

meaningless

it would

just be

another

tragedy

on the

pages

of history

but because

he rose

from the

dead

we know

that his

atonement

was accepted

by God

the father

and he

can give

you

life

forever

don't you

see

the

resurrection

changes

everything

it

changes

everything

it means

that the

purpose of

Christ

was actually

fulfilled

and that

by faith

we can

receive

the gift

of life

now I

believe

everything

that I've

said

tonight

is completely

rational

but rational

thinking

can only

get us

so far

can't it

simple

reason

can look

at the

Bible

and discern

at least

within the

pages of

the Bible

that all

of these

things

point

to the

fact

that Jesus

of Nazareth

is the

Messiah

and the

Son of

God

that it

teaches

his death

and resurrection

makes

salvation

possible

that it

affirms

that he

is the

eternal

Lord

all of

those

things

can be

rationally

discerned

as we

look at

the

scriptures

and that's

important

but it

is totally

possible

to see

those things

in the

Bible

without

actually

believing

that it's

true

without

actually

following

Jesus

as

Savior

and

Lord

in fact

many

people

consent

to a

form

of

Christianity

without

ever

actually

becoming

true

Christians

God

created

us

as

rational

beings

in order

that we

could

discern

his

rational

truth

in

his

word

but at

the

end

of

the

day

it

is

faith

that

he

demands

of

each

of

us

faith

Hebrews

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

chapter

11

and

verse

6

without

faith

it's

impossible

to

please

him

for

whoever

would

draw

near

to

God

must

believe

that

he

exists

and

that

he

rewards

those

who

seek

him

this

is

what

Paul

meant

in

Romans

5

since

we

have

been

justified

not

by

our

rational

assent

to

the

things

that

we

read

but

since

we

have

been

justified

by

faith

we

have

peace

with

God

through

our

Lord

Jesus

Christ

through

him

we

have

obtained

access

by

faith

into

this

grace

in

which

we

stand

and

as

we

finish

I

want

you

to

look

back

at

the

beginning

of

Peter's

sermon

specifically

at

verse

21

look at

it

with

me

verse

21

this

is

the

end

of

Joel's

prophecy

that

he

quotes

it

shall

come

to

pass

that

everyone

who

calls

upon

the

name

of

the

Lord

shall

be

saved

so

salvation

comes

to those

who

call

on

the

name

of

the