The Christian Handbook - Finished at Calvary

All right, we are continuing our series. Oh let me first say welcome

to the Ruth Community Church. I don't think I said that yet. Here

we believe it's all about Jesus and we are continuing a series called the Christian

Handbook. We're going through the fundamentals of the Christian faith. Our goal for

the series is that by examining the Holy Scriptures, we can better understand what

we believe, why we believe it, and so that we can live a

life that honors God and understand how to do that in our daily lives.

Before I get into my sermon, I'm going to pray, Lord Jesus says,

we continue to look through your Holy scriptures. Prepare our hearts to be

changed by it. Help us to be obedient to it, not just to

hear it, but to be doers of your word. Help us to be

good soil so that we can continue to sew your word into our lives into

those around us. We love you. Amen. Okay, So my sermon

today is titled Finished at Calvary. We're going to be discussing some of the

aspects of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and last week Pastor Duncan address the question

what sets Christianity apart, the answer being that we are saved by grace alone,

through faith alone, not by works. And this is the good news

of the Gospel, because God made a way for us to have peace with

Him through faith in his son Jesus and through him alone. He also had

a great point that I love that we're fueled by coffee alone, and that

support that I understand. I make a coffee joke every time I come up

here, but I'll probably just like start a coffee podcast just to get it

all out of my system. I'm testing it out on you guys as Christians.

To be set apart and given this peace by God's good grace, a

lot had to happen, including the physical death of Jesus on that day at

Calvary. So we're going to look at what happened by first examining in John

chapter nineteen. If any of you need a Bible, we have some on

the back table there by the door. John's Gospel Gospel account reads. Then

Pilot took Jesus and had him flogged. The soldiers twisted together a crown of

thorns and put it on his head. They clothed him in a purple robe,

and went up to him again and again, saying, hail the King

of the Jews, and they slapped him in the face once more. Pilot

came out and said to the Jews gathered there, look, I am bringing

him out to you to let you know that I find no basis for a

charge against him. When Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the

purple robe, Pilot said to them, here is the man. As soon

as the chief priests and their officials saw him, they shouted, crucify,

crucify, But Pilot answered, you take him and crucify him. As for

me, I find no basis for a charge against him. The Jewish leaders

insisted we have a law in according to that law, he must die because

he claimed to be the son of God. When Pilot heard this, he

was even more afraid, and he went back inside the palace. Where do

you come from, he asked Jesus, But Jesus gave him no answer.

Do you refuse to speak to me? Pilot said, don't you realize I

have power either to free you or to crucify you. Jesus answered, you

would have no power over me if it weren't not given to you from above.

Therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater

sin. From then on, Pilot tried to set Jesus free, but the

Jewish leaders kept shouting, if you let this man go, you are no

friend of Caesar. I'm just a reminder of the Jewish people hated Caesar.

But here they're more than willing to convict Pilot of his his call his obedience

to Caesar. If it means killing this man Jesus, anyone who claims to

be a king opposes Caesar. When Pilot heard this, he brought Jesus out

and sat down on the judge's seat at a place known as the stone pavement,

which an Aramaic is Gabatha. It was the day of preparation of the

Passover. It was about noon. Here is your king, Pilot said to

the Jews. But they shouted, take him away, take him away,

crucify him. Shall I crucify your king? Pilot asked, we have no

king but Caesar. This is how badly they wanted to kill Jesus. The

chief priest answered. Finally, Pilot handed him over to them to be crucified.

So the told, the soldiers took charge of Jesus. Carrying his own

cross. He went out to the place of the Skull, which an Aramaic

is called Golgotha. There they crucified him, and with two others on each

side of Jesus and in the middle, with Jesus in the middle. Excuse

me. Pilot had a notice prepared and fastened to the cross. It read

Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews, to only further mock him.

Many of the Jews read the sign, for the place where Jesus was

crucified was near the city, and the sign was written in Aramaic, Latin,

and Greek. The chief priests of the Jews protested to the pilot,

do not write the King of the Jews, but that this man only claimed

to be the king of the Jews. Pilot answered, what I have written,

I have written. He wants no heart in this. He has washed

his hands at this process. When the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took his

clothes, dividing them into four shares, one for each of them, with

the undergarment remaining. This garment was seamless, woven in one piece from top

to bottom. Let's not tear it. They said to one another, let's

decide by lot who will get it. This happened that the scripture might be

fulfilled. That said, they divided my clothes among them, and cast lots

for my garment. So this is what the soldiers did. Near the cross

of Jesus stood his mother, his mother's sister, Mary, the wife of

Clopas, and Mary Magdalen. When Jesus saw his mother there, and the

disciple, whom he loved, standing nearby, John, talking about himself,

he said to her woman, here is your son, And to the disciple

John, here is your mother. From that time on, this disciple took

her into his home. So Jesus charged John to take care of his mother.

Married, and John did so. Later, knowing that everything had now

been finished and so that scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, I am

thirsty. A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge

in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hissipplant, and lifted

it to jesus lips. When he had received the drink, Jesus said,

it is finished. With that, he bowed his head and gave up his

spirit. One thing we clearly see in this text is that Jesus was mocked,

beaten, and he willingly died a brutal death on a cross at the

behest of his own people. The question we're going to address today is why

did Jesus have to die? Why did his death on the cross? Why

did that actually have to happen. Several weeks ago, we looked at the

biblical account of creation and saw how God made everything good. Then what happened,

mankind fell, But it wasn't an accident, it wasn't a sin.

No. Adam and Eve were probably walking in the garden. Adam's like,

Eve, look at this animal I named. This is the platypus. This

one is the elephant. And She's like, yeah, cool, Adam.

They're hanging out eating fruit, and he's probably still looking at animals. And

the serpent comes and says what about this fruit? And Eve says, that's

the fruit we're not to eat of will surely die and the serpent, the

serpent says, do you sure about that? You sure about that? He

casts a seed of doubt in her, He deceives her, and she takes

a bite of it, and then Adam, who was with her, who

should have been watching her the whole time, should have been leading as a

husband. He takes the apple from Eve. She said it was good.

He takes a bite, and what happens. Death enters the world. In

Romans chapter five, Paul writes, Therefore, just as sin entered the world

through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came

to all people because all sinned, we are all guilty of sin by inheritance,

and not only by inheritance, but by our own sinful actions and omissions

to obey God. Paul tells us in Romans chapter three, as it is

written, there is no one righteous, not even one. There is no

one who understands. There is no one who seeks God. All have turned

away. They have together become worthless. There is no one who does good,

not even one. Their throats are open graves, their tongues practice deceit.

The poison of vipers is on their lips. Their mouths are full of

cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. Ruin and misery

mark their ways and the way of peace. They do not know. There

is no fear of God before their eyes, and then he continues in verse

twenty three, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

This last part of the verse fall short of the glory of God.

That hints it at a big question one might ask about sin, which is

why is death the result or the payment of sin? Why is death the

payment of sin? Why is it the result of sin? The answer is,

because God is holy, death is the result and payment of sin.

Because God is holy, his holiness means that He is altogether good, righteous,

perfect, and just. His justice demands payment for sin because all sin

is ultimately a sin against him. All sin is ultimately a sin against him.

When he read through the story of the Fall in Genesis chapter three,

we found that Adam and Eve hid from God because of their sin and the

shame of their nakedness. And then what happened next In verse twenty one,

the Lord made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.

What were the garments made of skin come from? I know they got dark

I'm sorry, but it had to be said. It comes from animals,

or never mind not taking it darker. Adam and eve sin resulted in the

first death of God's creation, a sacrifice had to be made simply to cover

their bodies, and the death did not end there. If you spend a

short amount of time in reading the Old Testament, you'll find an enormous amount

of daily animal sacrifices made to God. It's safe to say that the number

would be in the hundreds of thousands, likely millions, through the time of

the Old Testament. Let's take a look at this example in Second Chronicles,

Or tells us about Solomon celebrating the completion of the temple. By the way,

I keep writing, excellent like metal band names, this is another one

sacrificial blood bath, because this is what this was. Then the king and

all the people offered sacrifices before the Lord. And King Solomon offered a sacrifice

of twenty two thousand head of cattle and one hundred and twenty thousand sheep and

goats. So the king and all the people dedicated the temple of God.

The priests took their positions, as did the levites, with the Lord's musical

instruments which King David had made for praising. He made praising for the Lord,

and which were never which I'm gonna start over, which King David had

made for praising the Lord, and which were used when he gave thanks,

saying his love and yours forever opposite the Levites. The priests blew their trumpets,

and all the Israelites were standing. Anyone who cannot afford a lamb is

to bring two doves. I'm sorry I jumped ahead. You did nothing wrong

with Patricia. I was gonna say. This is another example in Leviticus,

now Leviticus, thank you. Anyone who cannot afford a lamb is to bring

two doves or two young pigeons to the Lord as a penalty for their sin,

one for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering. They

are to bring them to the priest, who shall first offer the one for

the sin offering. He used to wring its head from its neck, not

dividing it completely, and is to splash some of the blood of the sin

offering against the side of the altar. The rest of the blood must be

drained out at the base of the altar. It is a sin offering.

The priests shall then offer the other as a burnt opts to me. Hold

on, Okay, all right, let's start over. Some of the blood

of the sin offering against the side of the altar. The rest of the

blood must be drained out at the base of the altar. It is a

sin offering. The priests shall then offer the other as a burnt offering in

the prescribed way, and make atonement for them for the sin they have committed,

and they will be forgiven. Animal sacrifices, as we saw in these

two examples, was obviously gruesome, but it was necessary. Here's why it's

necessary. God's justice demands payment. It requires atonement. Conrad Inbawe is a

pastor and founding chancellor of the African Christian University in Zambia, wrote an excellent

quote to summarize this. He wrote, the God of the Bible is holy

in demands holiness from his creatures. He has given us consciousness, his written

law, and history to remind us of this reality. Where holiness is missing,

his justice demands full payment. Where holiness is missing, his justice demands

full payment. As part of the Old Covenant, God required animal sacrifices as

a substitutionary atonement for sin to provide a covering for sins, much like the

physical covering of Adam and Eve in the story of God testing Abraham. This

takes place shortly after Isaac was born. Sometime later, God tested Abraham.

He said to him, Abraham, here I am, he replied. Then

God said, take your son, your only son, whom you love,

Isaac, and go to the region of Mariah. Sacrifice him there as a

burnt offering on a mountain. I will show you as a reminder. Abraham

and Sarah could not conceive a child. They were an old age. Here

God opens the womb of Sarah. She's pregnant with Isaac. They give birth,

probably in their eighties. They were very old. One hundred. They

were one hundred. Greg said it. Early the next morning, Abraham got

up and loaded his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and

his son Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering,

he set out for the place God had told him about. I'm not sure

I supposed to be there. On the third day, Abraham looked up and

saw the place in the distance. He said to his servants, stay here

with the donkeys, while I and the boy go over there. We will

worship, and then we will come back to you. Abraham took the wood

for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac. Do remind you

of anything just foreshadowing jesus sacrifice, which, like Jesus carrying his own cross,

Abraham gives the wood meant to sacrifice him burn his only son to carry

on his back. He placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself

carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went together,

Isaac spoke up and said to his father, Abraham, Father, I'm impatging

this like he knows what's going on. This is a normal thing for them.

They're going to sacrifice an animal to God. That's what Abraham has modeled

to his son his whole life. So Isaac rightly, like the Dad,

where's the where's the animal? Yes, my son, Abraham replied, the

fire in the water here. But where's the lamb for the burnt offering?

Abraham answered, God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering. And

the two of them went on together. When they reached the place God had

told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it.

He bound his son isa and laid him on the altar on top of

the wood. There he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay

his son. He was ready to obey the word of God, whatever cost,

whatever that meant. But the Angel of the Lord called out to him

from heaven, Abraham, Abraham, here I am, he replied, do

not lay a hand on the boy. He said, do not do anything

to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not

withheld from me your only son. Abraham looked up, and there in a

thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took

the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. So

Abraham called that place the Lord will provide, And to this day it is

said, on the mountain of the Lord it will be provided. So from

these old Testament examples what we see is out of the abundance of his love.

God commanded and provided substitutionary sacrifices in the place of his children as our

creator, because he is just. Because death is the payment of sin,

God had every right to kill any one of these people at any time because

of their sin against him. But what did he do. He provided a

substitution by covering this excuse me. But this covering of sin was temporary,

which is why the sacrifices had to occur over and over again. It was

an incomplete atonement offered by imperfect, sinful beings. However, as we saw

in the example of Abraham and Isaac, right, I'm in the right spot.

Yeah, maybe we don't have it. I'll say it. These sacrifices

foreshadowed the perfect and complete sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the spotless Lamb of God,

which takes us all the way back to the original question, which I'm

still working on answering, is why did Jesus have to die to atone for

the sins of God's children? He had to die to atone for the sins

of God's children. In Hebrews chapter nine, verse eleven, it reads,

but when Christ came as high priests of the good things that are now already

here, he went through the greater and were perfect tabernacle that is not made

with human hands, that is to say, is not a part of this

creation. He did not enter by the means of the blood of goats and

calves, but he entered the most holy place once and for all by his

own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption. The blood of goats and bowls and

the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so

that they are outwardly clean. But much more than will the blood of Christ,

who through the eternal spirit, offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our

consciousness from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living

God. For this reason, Christ is the mediator of a new covenant that

those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, now that He has

died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first

Covenant. Looking back at John's gospel account, Jesus said something incredibly important the

moment before he died. We're gonna go back to twenty nine and John one

a jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it,

put the sponge on a stalk of the hiss A plant, and lifted

it to Jesus lifts. When he had received the drink, Jesus said,

it is finished. With that, He bowed his head and gave up his

spirit. Jesus spoke the words to tell Us die in Greek means it is

finished, or accomplished or complete. What's also significant about those words is there

have been ancient receipts for taxes that have been recovered with those same words written

on them, to show that a debt has been paid in full. If

you ever close out a home loan in thirty years, Lord willing, we'll

do it a car loan, whatever the loan may be. If you ever

close out a loan, the bank gives you a deed or a title right,

they give you a receipt to show this is yours who own this.

Your debt has been paid in full by law. They can't take that back

and say, yeah, we change your mind, never mind. So what

does this mean for us? What does this mean for us sinners? It

means this, because of our sinfulness, our fallenness, our very nature,

we owed a debt of death that could not merely be forgiven. It had

to be paid. The debt of death could not merely be forgiven. It

had to be paid. Why because a debt that is only forgiven is still

on our record. A debt that is only forgiven is still on our record.

If anyone, Lord Willingness, will never happen. If anyone who have

ever gone through or will go through bankruptcy, that debt may be forgiven that

is still on your record. So what does that mean for believers? To

those of us who have put our faith in Christ Jesus and submitted to him

as Lord of our life. Because of jesus sacrifice on the Cross, our

debt has been paid in full and our record wiped clean. Because of Jesus

sacrifice on the Cross, our debt has been paid in full and our record

wiped clean. Praise Jesus. What this does not mean is that because our

debt has been paid in full and our records have been wiped clean, the

weirds and continue sinning freely. The atoning work of Christ Jesus does not give

us a license to sin. It's like a Judas bond. If you will

bond, Jus bond licens just shooting Sean Connery is like the only voice I

can do. Okay, what did Jesus tell the woman caught in adultery when

her accusers left her? Neither do I condemn you? Go and sin no

more. Jesus did not die on the cross. Wipe our records clean,

pay our debt merely to give us freedom to continue sinning. Sinning, he

calls us to sin no more to reflect him. In Romans Chapter five,

Paul writes, the law was brought in so that the trespass might increase.

But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, so that just as

sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal

life through Jesus Christ our Lord. And then, in Romans six, verse

one, what shall we say, then shall we go on sinning so that

grace may increase? By no means? We are those who have died to

sin. How can we live in that way any longer? Or don't you

know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his

death. We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death, in order

that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the

Father, we two may live a new life. For if we have been

united with Him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united

with him in a resurrection like his. For we know that our old self

was crucified with him, so that the body ruled by sin might be done

away with that we should no longer be slaves to sin, because anyone who

has died has been set free from sin. Now, if we died with

Christ, we believe that we will also live with him, for we know

that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again. Death

no longer has mastery over him. The death he died, he died to

sin once and for all, but the life he lives, he lives to

God. In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin, but alive

to God in Christ. Jesus. Therefore, do not let sin reign in

your mortal body, so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer

any part of yourselves to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer

yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and

offer every part of yourself to Him as an instrument of righteousness. For sin

shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law but

under grace. And then Paul continues in verse fifteen, also with me,

all right, what then shall we sin? Because we are not under the

law but under grace. Again, Paul says, by no means, don't

you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are

slaves to the one you obey, whether you are slaves to sin, which

leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness. But thanks

be to God that through you. But thanks be to God that though you

used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart

the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance. You have been set

free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness. I am using an example

from everyday life because of your human limitations. Just as you used to offer

yourselves as slaves to impurity and to ever increasing wickedness, so now offer yourselves

as slaves to righteousness, leading to holiness. When you were slaves to sin,

you were free from the control of righteousness. What benefit did you reap

all that time from those things that you are now ashamed of? Those things

result in death. But now that you have been set free from sin and

have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and

the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but

the gift of God is eternal life. In Christ, Jesus our Lord.

And then in First Peter Chapter one, Peter writes, Therefore, with minds

that are alert and fully sober, set your hope on the grace to be

brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming. As obedient children,

do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance.

But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in

all you do, for it is written. Be holy because I am holy.

God spoke these words to the Israelites instructing when I mean, he never

stopped instructing them what to do, and they sometimes listened, much like us.

Be holy because I Am holy. As God's children, as children of

light, we are called to be set apart. We are called to be

obedient to Christ out of the revelation of his crucifixion and death and sacrifice and

atoning work. Can I get the band to come up. I'm gonna do

things a little differently today. So this is still the roots, but I'm

gonna do it different. We're in a few minutes going to go into a

response time. This response time, as we call it, is a time

to continue worshiping and praising God. We worship through the giving of our finances.

If you came prepared to do that, we have an offering box outside

the door. It's available. Jerry got it giving. It's not a joke

though. Wait, never mind, ignore that. We're else gonna have time

for prayer. I'm going to be on the side along with Duncan and any

other elders who are here with our wives. If you don't want to pray

with us, that's okay. You won't hurt my feelings. I'll wait till

next week. You can write your prayer request on a connect card if you

want the prayer to be private, so it only goes to the leaders of

the church, to the elders, you can write private on there. You

can make it anonymous. And then we're going to worship. We're going to

praise Lord through song. Before we do that, I'm gonna stop talking.

But there's just a few clo closing thoughts. I want to reinforce what we've

covered today. The first is that what was finished at Calvary was the atonement

forgiveness and redemption of sin for all who believe. Secondly, because of Jesus,

we are no longer slaves to sin. We are slaves to righteousness.

With those two things in mind, our response to Jesus's finished work on the

cross and the grace and righteousness he extended to us should be one of obedience,

joy, and gratefulness to the praise of His glory forever. I'm gonna

pray would just stand up. I told you, I'm doing things differently to

keep us on her feet right. Don't get comfortable. God didn't call us

through a life of comfort. He will take care of us though. Lord

God, thank you for sending your son, your only son, to die

on the cross. Jesus, thank you for your willingness to sacrifice yourself for

your creation. Even though we were the ones worthy of death. You were

spotless, blameless, and yet you were made to be sin for us in

our place. Jesus, I pray that your holy spirit would always remind us

of that, and that it would lead us to a spirit of great rightfulness.

Enjoy, because we are free from the bondage of sin. Our records

have been wiped clean, our debt has been fully erased and paid for it

because of your work on the Cross. Help us to be obedient to your

word. Help us to be quick to forgive others. Help us to be

quick to run to the feet of your throne, Lord, when we sin

against you. Thank you that you are faithful and just to forgive us of

those sins, to cleanse us from all unrighteousness in your name, Amen,