Our Gospel: Sin-Bearing

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The first reading today is an Old Testament lesson from the prophet Isaiah, chapter 53, verses 4 through 6.

Isaiah 53:4–6

Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering.

Yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted.

But he was pierced for our transgressions.

He was crushed for our iniquities.

The punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.

We all, like sheep, have gone astray.

Each of us has turned to our own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

The grass withers and the flowers fall.

The word of our God stands forever.

And the New Testament lesson is a reading from the first letter of Peter, chapter 1, verses 18 through 22, and chapter 3, verse 18.

For you know that it was not with perishable things, such as silver or gold, that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors,

but with the precious blood of Christ, the lamb without blemish or defect.

To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.

He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.

When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate.

When he suffered, he made no threats.

Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly.

He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live for righteousness.

By his wounds you have been healed.

For you were like sheep going astray, but now you have returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls.

For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God.

He was put to death in the body, but made alive in the spirit.

This is the word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

Good morning, Christ Church.

It's kind of crazy that we're one month into summertime here.

It's hard to believe.

I know some of you are brand new, not only to Christ Church, but to this area.

We want you to know that we're very glad that you're here.

We warmly welcome you.

You should know that I'm about to go on vacation tomorrow morning.

So I look forward to getting to know you, but later.

Later.

And some of you, I know, are moving away, which breaks our hearts always.

But to good things, new school opportunities, new job opportunities.

And I would love a chance to say a proper goodbye if that's you after our service today.

I'm really just on a personal note happy to report that this is the best I've felt going into summer vacation in the last five years.

And so I want to thank God for that.

We've endured a lot.

And I thank you for praying for me and for Christ Church.

And it's just so good to be in this place.

These past two months, we've been looking at this letter from one of Jesus' apostles.

He was the leader, really, of Jesus' band of 12 disciples.

His name was Simon Peter.

And Jesus took this ordinary fisherman and he transformed him into an extraordinary witness of the gospel, the good news.

And in our text today, Jesus gives us several nutshell summary statements about what the gospel is all about.

And so I want to talk about that under three headings today.

I want to talk about the centrality of the cross and the meaning of the cross and the result of the cross.

The centrality, the meaning, and the result of the cross.

First of all, let's think together about the centrality of the cross.

If you were to open your pew Bible, and you're welcome to do that,

and you look at the first sentence of this letter that the apostle Peter writes,

he says that he's writing to people who have been, quote, unquote, sprinkled with the blood of Jesus Christ.

It's a striking statement.

And then he goes on, as we read in chapter one, he says,

you've been redeemed with the precious blood of Jesus.

In chapter two, as we read, it says that he bore our sins in his body on the tree.

And then in chapter three, Christ suffered for sins to bring us to God.

So it's pretty clear that the cross is central in Peter's mind to the message that he has to give to these people.

And if you know the story of Peter, the centrality of the cross here in his letter is quite astounding.

Because when Jesus predicted his sufferings and his death, Peter protested.

Jesus said to his disciples, he said, I must go to Jerusalem, and I must suffer and be killed,

and on the third day, be raised.

And Peter was brash enough to take Jesus aside,

and to immediately and vehemently contradict Jesus and rebuke Jesus.

And he said this, he said, far be it from you, Lord, this shall never happen to you.

Never, Peter said.

So how did Jesus respond to Peter?

Well, you can read this episode in Matthew, the Gospel of Matthew chapter 16,

Matthew 16 · chapter mention

but Jesus rebuked Peter, and he said, get behind me, Satan.

Now, if Jesus ever says that to you, that's just not a good thing to hear from Jesus.

Okay, get behind me, Satan.

You are not setting your mind on God and the concerns of God,

but merely on human concerns.

And so Jesus tells Peter that if he will not embrace the cross,

then he's just not aligned with God,

and he's not aligned with the concerns of God.

And so what sort of impact, what kind of effect did this have on Peter?

Well, Peter came to understand that the cross of Christ is the center of the Christian faith.

And how did that happen?

Well, Peter encountered the resurrected Jesus on Easter Sunday.

He saw the nail marks in Jesus' glorified body,

and over those next 40 days,

he heard the risen and living Lord giving this giant review session

and going back over all the teaching that he had given over the past three years.

And somewhere in there, I think it all finally clicked for Peter.

For example, think about this sign and this symbol of the Lord's Supper that we have put in front of us.

You can think about all the means that Jesus could have given to us to remember him and to experience him.

And Jesus could have said, you know,

when my disciple community, when my church gathers together,

make sure that you pull out a replica of my manger

so that you remember my birth and the incarnation.

Or he could have said, you know,

make sure you pull out a hammer and a chisel to remember that I was a builder

and to remember the value and dignity of human labor.

Jesus could have said, well, bring out a little model of a boat

because that will signify when I got into the boat and taught all the people on the land.

It will signify my teachings.

Or he could have said, everybody pull out a towel.

Pull out a towel and remember that moment where I washed the feet of my disciples.

Or we could have doves in here as a symbol of the Holy Spirit

that was operative in the life of Jesus.

Jesus had many, many symbols available to him

as the means for which his disciple community was to remember him

and to experience him.

But what did Jesus choose?

He chose the bread and the wine.

And he chose the bread and the wine so that Peter would know

and so that we would know that the Christian faith

is primarily the faith of Christ crucified.

Right?

The bread and the wine, they don't signify the birth of Jesus

or the life of Jesus or the words of Jesus or the works of Jesus

or the resurrection of Jesus or even the coming again of Jesus.

The bread and the wine signify to us Jesus' body broken

and his blood poured out on the cross.

Jesus made it super clear to Peter and all the apostles before he died

and after he was raised from the dead

that the reason he stepped out of eternity and into time

was to die on the cross.

And Peter came to see that without the cross,

there is no salvation for human beings.

There's no hope in this world without the cross.

So if you're exploring Christianity,

you may be wondering,

gosh, there's so much about the Christian faith.

Where do I focus my attention?

And I want you to know that, you know,

without the resurrection of Jesus,

his cross would be meaningless.

So you have to deal with the substantial evidence that we have

for the resurrection of Jesus.

But I would also say at the same time,

you've got to deal with the way that Jesus' followers spoke about his cross.

Take, for example, Saul of Tarsus.

Saul was this zealous Jew.

He was adamantly opposed to Jesus Christ

until he had this encounter with Jesus,

this life-transforming encounter with the risen and living Lord.

And then Paul began to speak in this way.

This is what he says in 1 Corinthians 1 and 2.

He says to this church,

we preach Christ crucified.

For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you

except Jesus Christ and him crucified.

Now that does not mean that Paul devoted himself to ignorance

about other important matters.

Paul was educated.

Paul was brilliant.

But it means that all Paul does

and all that Paul teaches is tied to the cross.

And it means that we can understand nothing about Christian doctrine,

Christian ethics, Christian worship, Christian fellowship,

or Christian mission

unless the cross is at the center of all of those concerns.

So as you explore the Christian faith,

if that's you today and you're reading a Christian book

or you are hearing a Christian message,

you're engaging with a Christian group,

and it's not fairly obvious within a reasonable amount of time

that the cross is central to that message

or that group's vision of who God is

and of what God has done.

And if something else has been substituted in the center

other than the cross,

then you know that you're probably not dealing,

you're probably not engaging with

genuine historic Christian faith,

but rather some sort of counterfeit version instead.

So if you're exploring Christianity,

that's my encouragement to you

is to think about the centrality of the cross

for Peter, for Paul, for Jesus himself

who gave us this symbol to remember his cross.

Let's think for a minute too,

not only about the centrality of the cross,

but also the meaning of the cross.

The meaning of the cross.

Look at verse 24

where Peter says these words.

He says he himself, Jesus himself,

bore our sins in his body.

He bore our sins in his body.

And what Peter's talking about there

is that the eternal God became flesh.

The eternal God took a human body

and he assumed our human nature.

Why did he do that?

Well, Peter says it's because of, quote unquote,

our sins.

What is this archaic, nasty little three-letter word

sin mean?

Well, in the Greek,

it's actually a seven-letter word.

It's hamartia.

And when you read Homer

and you read the Iliad or the Odyssey,

Homer uses this word hamartia

to talk about throwing a spear

but missing the mark.

or shooting an arrow

but failing to hit the bullseye,

falling short of your target.

And then if you keep reading on,

and Aristotle and the Greek dramatists,

they use this word hamartia

to talk about a character's tragic error,

a fatal flaw,

some sort of blind spot

that leads to their downfall.

And that's basically what Peter's talking about as well,

that we were made

to hit the bullseye

of loving God

with all that we are.

We were made to love God

from the center of our being,

to find our deepest identity

and our deepest value

in our relationship with God,

in our service to God.

And what Peter's saying

is that we've missed that mark.

We've failed to hit that target.

We've fallen short of the bullseye

of God's design

and His intention for us.

And what Peter's suggesting

is that sin is seeking

to become yourself.

Sin is seeking to get your identity

apart from God

in something other than God.

And that's why the ancient theologians

talked about the human condition

as we are, all of us,

homo incurvatus in se,

which means that we are human beings

curved in upon ourselves.

That self-centeredness

and self-absorption

and self-interest

has somehow poisoned all of us.

And that is why, Peter says,

the eternal God took a human body.

And that's why Jesus voluntarily

offered Himself up to God the Father.

He says Jesus came to bear our sins

in His body.

And where exactly did Jesus do this?

Now, I have a little quibble

with the translation

that we just read this morning

because the Greek word is

He did this on the zulon.

He did this on the wood.

He did it on the tree.

It doesn't say He did it on the staros,

the cross.

And I don't know why

the translation committee did that.

So we need to write them a letter.

But I'm pointing this out

because it's a really important difference.

Why does Peter actually say

He bore our sins in His body

on the tree?

In the Acts of the Apostles,

we get multiple sermons from Peter.

And in two different sermons,

Peter says that Jesus was put to death

by people hanging Him on a tree.

He was hung on a tree.

And then here He uses the same language.

He bore our sins in His body

on the tree.

That's a very odd way of speaking.

Why in the world

does He put it this way?

Why would you go out of your way

to emphasize the tree?

Well, Peter's referencing Moses

in Deuteronomy chapter 21, verse 23.

Deuteronomy 21:23

And Moses says this.

He says,

Anyone who is hung on a tree

is under God's curse.

Anyone who's hung on a tree

is under God's curse.

So that word tree

is deliberate shorthand

that means that Jesus died

under the divine curse.

And of course,

Peter does not think

that Jesus deserved

to be accursed by God.

He says in verse 22

that He committed no sin.

No, it was the divine curse

that was on us.

The divine curse

that was hanging over me.

And hanging over you

that Jesus came to bear.

And now notice

how Peter refers

not only to Moses

but then to the prophets.

He refers to the prophet Isaiah

and he quotes Isaiah 53, verse 5.

Isaiah 53:5

And he says this.

By his wounds,

you have been healed.

And that's a deliberate reference

to the whole of that passage,

which I want to read to you

one more time.

You can look at Isaiah 53,

starting at verse 4.

This is talking about God's servant

that He's going to send.

And it says that,

surely He took up our pain

and bore our suffering.

Yet we considered Him punished by God,

stricken by Him and afflicted.

But He was pierced

for our transgressions.

And He was crushed

for our iniquities.

And the punishment

that brought us peace

was on Him.

And by His wounds,

we are healed.

And do you see all that

back and forth

that Isaiah is doing there?

What he's talking about

is some sort of substitution,

some sort of exchange,

some sort of transfer

that this servant of God

is going to come

and He's going to take

the place of sinners.

He's going to bear their sin

instead of them

and on behalf of them

and in the place of them.

And so why is Peter

marshalling Moses and Isaiah

and the whole of the Old Testament?

What in the world

is His point for us?

It's just this.

That the Creator of the universe

stooped down

and that He humbled Himself

and that He took our human nature

to Himself in His birth

and then He took our guilt

and our shame to Himself

in His death.

Sinless Himself,

Jesus came and He bore our sins.

Innocent Himself,

Jesus assumed our guilt.

And immortal Himself,

Jesus died our death.

And why did He do it?

Well, He did it out of sheer

selfless love

that we can barely even begin

to understand

that Jesus wanted to bring us

out of that cursedness

that we were living in.

He wanted to bring us

out of the cursedness

of sin and death

and He wanted to bring us

into that healing

and that forgiveness

that can only happen

through His wounds.

He says in 1 Peter 3.18,

He suffered for sins

that He might bring us to God,

that He might reconcile us

with our Creator God

against whom we had rebelled,

that He might bring us back

into fellowship with God

as our Abba Father.

So when we look upon the cross

and we look upon

that most dramatic experience

of unjust suffering

in human history,

what should cause us to tremble

is not so much

His physical suffering

when He was reviled

and tortured

and executed

at the hands of His enemies.

And what should cause us

to tremble

is not so much

His mental suffering

when He was betrayed

and denied

and abandoned

at the hands of His friends.

But what should really

cause us to tremble

is Jesus' spiritual suffering

when He, the sinless one,

bore our sin

and He bore our curse

and He bore our condemnation

and our eternal death penalty

not at the hands

of His enemies,

not at the hands

of His friends,

but at the hands

of God Himself.

That's the real meaning

of the cross,

the real meaning

of what Christ did

on that cross

is that the suffering

and the agony

that Jesus bore

was the endless suffering

and endless agony

of being cut off from God

and being separated from God.

And Jesus, of course,

didn't deserve that.

Jesus deserved nothing

but adoration and reward

for the life that He lived.

But the one person

who did not have to die

volunteered to take our place

and to become

our sin-bearing substitute.

And on that great

central day of history,

for one time only,

God treated the only

righteous person

as if He were unrighteous.

And Jesus cried out,

My God, my God,

why have you forsaken me?

And the reason He said that

is so that none of us

would ever have to utter

that awful sentence

for ourselves.

That we would never

be forsaken by God.

Jesus cried out

from that cross,

It is finished

so that you and I

could know

that all of our sin

and our unrighteousness

was transferred onto Him.

And all of His sin

and His righteousness

was transferred onto us.

and that all of our

self-centered

homo incurvatus

in se,

curved inness

upon ourselves,

past and present

and future,

all of our self-centered

attitudes and actions,

past, present, and future,

were born by Jesus

for us.

In a lot of churches,

people would say,

mm-hmm,

or like, amen,

or that's right.

There's nothing more

that you can do

to make you more

acceptable to God.

And there's nothing more

that we could add

to Christ's work

on that cursed tree.

And so if you're here

and you're exploring

Christianity,

I want you to know,

again,

that becoming a Christian

is about allowing

this meaning of the cross

that I've just explained

to you,

allowing the meaning

of the cross

to become the meaning

of your life,

to become the very

foundation of the heart

of your identity.

And that's how

Jesus' followers talked,

right?

The Apostle Paul

closes his great letter

to the Galatians

like this.

He says,

may I never boast

except in the cross

of our Lord Jesus Christ

through which the world

has been crucified to me

and I to the world.

You following with me?

The centrality of the cross

and the meaning

of the cross

but I also want you

to see the result

of the cross

because Peter doesn't

just leave it there.

He keeps going

and kind of begs

this question of like

what was God's desired

outcome

of Jesus' sin

bearing death?

It wasn't just

that we might be forgiven.

It was that

but it's more than that.

Peter says in verse 24

that we might die

to sin

and live to righteousness.

that we might die

to sin

and live

to righteousness.

Jesus bore

our sins

that we might be given

a new birth

into a new life

with a new power

and new habits

so that we increasingly

more and more

come to look like Jesus

and sound like Jesus

and feel like Jesus

and act like Jesus

and talk like Jesus.

So the cross

not only brings us

forgiveness

but it commits us

to the holiness

of Jesus.

Our new life

in Jesus Christ

is so radically new

that it can only be

described by Peter

as a death

and a resurrection.

He's saying to us

you died

with Jesus

to sin

and you were raised

with Jesus

to a new life

of righteousness

in line with God's will.

And so what does that mean

for us in practical terms?

Well it means simply this

that I can no longer

do things my way.

That if you embrace

the meaning of the cross

for you

you can no longer

do things your way.

And here's where I get that

in verse 25

Peter says

for you were like

sheep going astray

but now you have returned

to the shepherd

and overseer

of your souls.

See Peter was there

when Jesus said

to the disciples

in John chapter 10

John 10 · chapter mention

I'm the good shepherd

who lays down

his life for the sheep.

And so Peter knows

that Jesus

is our seeking shepherd.

He passionately pursues

his straying sheep.

And when he says that

he's quoting again

Isaiah 53 6

which says

we all like sheep

have gone astray

and each of us

has turned to

our own way.

And that's what sin is.

Sin is my way.

Sin is saying to God

not your way

my way.

And if you know

the story of Peter

you know he had

some my way moments

didn't he?

Peter had some

some big kind of like

my way failures

like big time.

And so what a relief

Peter must have felt.

What a joy

Peter must have felt

and must have filled

his heart

when he met

the resurrected Jesus

and he received

the forgiveness of sins

from his good shepherd.

And I'm imagining

from that point on

Peter was thinking

to himself

gosh

if my good shepherd

laid down his life

for me

and my failures

and if the overseer

of my soul

bore

my sins

and my way

for me

then it's inconceivable

that I should

insist on

my way

anymore.

The result of the cross

is that I should

no longer go

in my way

but that I should

go in my good

shepherd's way.

And if he's leading

me in paths

of righteousness

who am I to resist him?

He's the shepherd

and overseer

of my soul.

And so Peter says

I'm done with that

old life

of my way

and now I want

to live this new life

of Jesus' way.

And the way

he describes that

is he says

it's living

for righteousness.

Living for righteousness.

What in the world

does that mean?

Well look again

at verse 21

of chapter 2.

He says

because Christ

suffered for you

leaving you

an example

that you should

follow

in his steps.

He left us

an example

that we should

follow in his steps.

And that word

example

it refers to

the pattern

of letters

in the alphabet.

and children

in the ancient world

they would learn

to write their ABCs

by taking

an example

of the letters

and then they would

trace over that

example.

And so Peter's

telling us

that living

for righteousness

means tracing

the pattern

of Jesus' life

onto our life.

It's like laying

that paper

over the pattern

right?

And looking

through it

and seeing

the example

the pattern

of Jesus

cross-shaped

sacrificial

self-giving love

and then tracing

that out

on our life

replicating that

out in our life.

Peter says

we're to follow

in Jesus' steps.

And that

simply means

that we cannot

step into the

footsteps of Jesus

and then go

head off

in our own

direction

that's different

than the direction

that Jesus

is taking.

Jesus'

footsteps

led him

to follow

a particular

pathway.

And the path

that Jesus took

was the path

of meek

submission

to the Father's

will.

The path

that Jesus took

was radical

obedience

to the Father's

word.

The path

that Jesus took

was suffering

love and relationship

with others.

The path

of Jesus

was surrendering

his needs

and his desires

his rights

and his privileges

and his comforts

for the sake

of loving others.

Can you imagine

tracing those

ABC's of Jesus

onto your life?

And I'll go

one further

in verse 23.

It says

when they hurled

their insults

at Jesus

he did not

retaliate

and when

he suffered

he made

no threats

instead

he entrusted

himself

to him

who judges

justly.

And what

Peter's telling

us is that

living for

righteousness

means following

in Jesus'

footsteps

of non-retaliation.

And you may

find this useful

in your workplace

tomorrow

or in your

family gatherings

this July 4th

weekend.

Right?

That just as

people hurled

ugly words

at Jesus

and he

did not

retaliate.

So when

people say

something to

you that's

not worth

saying.

Right?

When people

are insensitive

to you

or mean

to you.

When people

criticize you

to your face

or they slander

you behind

your back.

And whether

they do that

in person

or over text

or online.

As someone

who's living

for righteousness

someone who's

following in

Jesus'

steps

you will not

reply in kind.

You will

as Jesus

he did not

retaliate.

And that's

to state it

negatively

but let me

just end

by putting

it positively

using Jesus'

own words

from the

Gospel of Luke

Luke 6 · chapter mention

chapter 6.

And I think

if the church

did this

it would probably

change the world

because here's

what Jesus

says.

Love your

enemies.

Do good

to those

who hate you.

Bless

those

who curse

you.

Pray for

those

who

mistreat

you.

If someone

slaps you

on one

cheek

turn to

them the

other also.

If someone

takes your

coat

do not

withhold

your shirt

from them.

Love your

enemies.

Do good

to them.

Lend to

them without

expecting

anything

in return.

Then your

reward will

be great

and you

will be

children of

the

Most High

because he

is kind

to the

ungrateful

and the

wicked.

So be

merciful

as your

Father

is

merciful.

To follow

in the

footsteps of

Jesus'

righteousness

means that

when we're

hated

we do

good.

And when

we're

cursed

we bless.

And when

we're

mistreated

we pray.

And when

we encounter

someone who's

ungrateful

we're kind.

And when we

encounter someone

and deal with

someone who's

wicked

we're

merciful.

Friends this

is the way

of Jesus.

And this is

the intended

result of

his cross.

So may we

follow in

Jesus'

steps and

may when

people look

at us may

they see the

example,

the pattern,

the ABC,

of Jesus'

righteous life

writ large

in our

lives.

In the name

of the

Father,

Son,

and Holy

Spirit.

Amen.

Amen.