Sermon Notes 3-29-2015

The last hours of Jesus

He did it alone!

 He did it alone!

·      The disciples where hiding

·      The church was out to get him

·      The government, was hands off

·      The crowd’s didn’t like the fact that he wouldn’t do it there way

He was all alone 8 hours one Friday! The very people he came to serve were nowhere to be found or had turned their backs on him! There is a lot to learn from the people involved in the death and torture of Jesus

We need to always be looking in the mirror!

Easter is a Good time to tell the story of the resurrection of Jesus and His ascension into Heaven. To talk of the Hope, Grace, mercy and Love of our Jesus.  But it would not help us change to be more like Him. If you sit and call yourself a follower of Jesus you know why he died and that without the resurrection there is no Story. He would just be another martyr. But there is something to be said about the people in the story of the arrest, trial, torture, humiliation and crucifixion of Jesus Christ. There is something to be said about us all and our lack of compassion for all mankind.

Jesus came to preach Love and Grace. He came to preach forgiveness. He desperately wanted us to see the needs of the people around us.

Instead He found a world not so different from ours today. Where people looked for the quick fix, the next greatest scandal, People who could not even see the living God standing among them.  

Today I want us to look at the people in the story of the crucifixion. And see if we see anything in our lives that mirror those people.  And also look at Jesus’s sacrificial love that allows us to follow Him today. 

People in the Story:

Pharisees

Mt 26:3–5

 Then the chief priests and the elders of the people assembled in the palace of the high priest, whose name was Caiaphas,

4 and they schemed to arrest Jesus secretly and kill him.

5 “But not during the festival,” they said, “or there may be a riot among the people.”

·      This is us today, always climbing the ladder of Success at any cost

·      Why!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

o   Fear of Change

§  They could not See God right before their eyes

o   Loss of Power

§  Lack of humility

o   Loss of Position

§  Some I’m sure did believe in Jesus but would not sacrifice their position or social status

·      The church Today is no different

·      We struggle for power, struggle for position

·      Why do we always want to judge others

·      Why do we always want someone else’s sin to be worse that our own sin

·      Why as a body of believers to we want to tear each other down why the world watches

·      I have come under some huge judgment lately

o   Because I don’t do what you think I should

o   Or I do what you think I shouldn’t

o   It rips at the fabric of the church

o   and gives Satan a door in

The Crowd at the Trail

Mt 27:20–23

But the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowd to ask for Barabbas and to have Jesus executed.

21 “Which of the two do you want me to release to you?” asked the governor.

“Barabbas,” they answered.

22 “What shall I do, then, with Jesus who is called the Messiah?” Pilate asked.

They all answered, “Crucify him!”

23 “Why? What crime has he committed?” asked Pilate.

But they shouted all the louder, “Crucify him!”

·      To concerned with their wants

o   On Sunday they wanted Jesus to take the City by force when he preached grace they wanted Him Dead

·      Followed the Pharisees blindly

·      Wanted change right now, not in Gods time

·      Refused to See God in all His Glory

·      They never took the time to know God intimately

Does this sound familiar to you????

·      Are you looking for that quick fix

·      Not letting God be God in his time

·      To you want a God that makes life easy, give you what you want or you runaway mad

·      Do you follow other blindly, not seeing What God says and following His example

Pilate

Mt 27:24–26

When Pilate saw that he was getting nowhere, but that instead an uproar was starting, he took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd. “I am innocent of this man’s blood,” he said. “It is your responsibility!”

25 All the people answered, “His blood is on us and on our children!”

26 Then he released Barabbas to them. But he had Jesus flogged, and handed him over to be crucified.

·      The saddest line I have ever read (to Satisfy the Crowd)

·      He knew It was wrong, but did it anyway

·      Don’t we all

o   Do what are friends do

o   We blindly follow a broken world thinking it will fix us

o   And like Pilate all the while fall deeper and deeper in to the wants of this world

o   Only to find it leaves us more broken, more depressed, more empty than we were before

The Soldiers

Mt 27:27–31

Then the governor’s soldiers took Jesus into the Praetorium and gathered the whole company of soldiers around him.

28 They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him,

29 and then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on his head. They put a staff in his right hand. Then they knelt in front of him and mocked him. “Hail, king of the Jews!” they said.

30 They spit on him, and took the staff and struck him on the head again and again. 31 After they had mocked him, they took off the robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him away to crucify him.

·      The flogged Him!

·      The humiliated Him!

·      Don’t we all Have this Evil Within us

·      We see it everywhere some times more subtle and we just turn away as if it doesn’t happen

We live in a depraved and desperate world that desperately needs Jesus

So what was God trying to tell us in the suffering and Death of Jesus???? The events surrounding the last 24 hours of Jesus’s life on earth speaks of the brokenness of humanity. Each person taking part in the tragedy of Jesus’s death is a reflection of that brokenness.

·      The disciples fell asleep; they fled in fear as Jesus was arrested.

·      Judas betrayed Him, and Peter denied Him.

·      The Pharisees and religious leaders plotted to kill Him,

·      The crowded wanted violence versus a messiah of Love.

·      The governor tried to satisfy the crowded even when he knew it was wrong

·      And the soldiers took delight in the torture and dehumanizing of an innocent man.

What we did when God walked this earth is a look in the soul of all human kind.

·      We are meant to find ourselves in this story and to be moved in the tragedy of it all.

·      We are meant to realize that there is something deeply wrong with us all, that we are broken and in desperate need of forgiveness!

·      The suffering and death of Jesus is intended to be a mirror for us all to look into; a reminder of the jealousy, pettiness, self-centeredness, spiritual blindness, and darkness that lurks in us all.  

·      The accounts are meant to move us to repentance.

The Story of Sacrificial love

We are also meant to see the sacrificial love of the one who suffered for us, as well as His determination to save us from ourselves.

·      He hangs on the cross as if to say “do you see the extent the Father has gone to show you His love”.

·      Do you understand that I have come to show a love so deep that it is willing to suffer, even die for you!

Jesus demonstrates a love that refuses to give up or give in, he is willing to love us even when we don’t love Him or even like him. He is determined to bring us back in right relationship with God no matter what the cost!!

Ro 5:8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Jn 3:16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

·      Sacrificial love transforms Lives!

·      It turns enemies in to friends,

·      Turns guilt into repentance, and melts hearts of stone.

·      The world is changed by demonstrations of true sacrificial love and selfless acts of service.

We are to look at the cross and say I have to strive to live more like Jesus, to be worthy of His sacrifice!  We are meant to be changed by the events of the cross and in turn to practice the same sacrificial love demonstrated by Jesus toward others. As each new follower of Jesus shows that same sacrificial love to the world lives will change and the world will be transformed!!

Sermon Notes 3-22-2015

The Road to Romans!

Who’s Slave are you anyway

Romans 6:15–23 (NLT)

¹⁵Well then, since God’s grace has set us free from the law, does that mean we can go on sinning? Of course not!

¹⁶Don’t you realize that you become the slave of whatever you choose to obey? You can be a slave to sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God, which leads to righteous living.

¹⁷Thank God! Once you were slaves of sin, but now you wholeheartedly obey this teaching we have given you.

¹⁸Now you are free from your slavery to sin, and you have become slaves to righteous living.

¹⁹Because of the weakness of your human nature, I am using the illustration of slavery to help you understand all this. Previously, you let yourselves be slaves to impurity and lawlessness, which led ever deeper into sin. Now you must give yourselves to be slaves to righteous living so that you will become holy.

²⁰When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the obligation to do right.

²¹And what was the result? You are now ashamed of the things you used to do, things that end in eternal doom.

²²But now you are free from the power of sin and have become slaves of God. Now you do those things that lead to holiness and result in eternal life.

²³For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.

In Verse one of Chapter 6, Paul ask as question of can we sin if we are under grace and the answer was no!! But now he asks a similar but different question “Shall we Sin?”

Paul is raising the question of whether a Christian ought to choose to sin occasionally because he enjoys the short-lived pleasure that sin gives.

·      That is the situation that every one of us faces from time to time. Sin is fun, isn't it?

·      Sometimes we run up against some pretty darn good temptations.

·      At times, we all are confronted with the feeling "Why not give in?

·      I am not under Law. It is love that will discipline me; Law will not condemn me.

·      I can be forgiven; I can be restored -- so why not sin?"

·      I have heard a lot of Christians talk that way, and I have delt with this in my own life.

·      Why not give in and enjoy a sin -- we are not under law, but under grace.

·      Do you see the thrust of Pauls question? It is a very real, very practical one.

·       

He asks, "Shall we sin?" His answer is: "No. By no means!" If you, as a Christian, go on and sin deliberately, even if it is only occasionally, you must face what sin will do to you. You must face the full results of what will happen when you and I, as believers, choose to do what we know to be wrong, even though we have been set free in Christ and don’t need to do the things we know we shouldn’t do.

Paul's answer is three-fold: "Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!

·      First, sin makes you a slave (Verses 16-19).

·      Second, sin will make you ashamed (Verses 20-21).

·      Finally, sin will spread death throughout your whole existence (Verses 22-23).

Who will you serve?

Let's look at the first part of Paul's answer. In Verses 16-19, he tells us that sin will make slaves out of us:

¹⁶Don’t you realize that you become the slave of whatever you choose to obey? You can be a slave to sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God, which leads to righteous living.

¹⁷Thank God! Once you were slaves of sin, but now you wholeheartedly obey this teaching we have given you.

¹⁸Now you are free from your slavery to sin, and you have become slaves to righteous living.

¹⁹Because of the weakness of your human nature, I am using the illustration of slavery to help you understand all this. Previously, you let yourselves be slaves to impurity and lawlessness, which led ever deeper into sin. Now you must give yourselves to be slaves to righteous living so that you will become holy.

·      Who/or what are you slave to?? (questions)

·      We all have a sin nature

·      But because of Grace we no longer have to be slave to it

·      If you truly want to change, you have to make a choice to

·      We are all slaves to something God or Satan! It’s just that simple!

·      Sin (thorns) are rooted in the heart

·      Righteousness (Fruit) are rooted in the heart

·      We have to look at what owns us/rules us to truly see who we are a slave to

·      We will sin occasionally, but if you keep sinning and stop repenting you can very quickly become a slave to sin and Satan!

DO THE WATER BOTTLE !!!!!!!

Sin just leads to more sin!

John 8:34 (NLT)

³⁴Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave of sin.

·      Have you ever told that white lie that leads to 734 more lies?

·      You ever started a conversation with the best of intentions and end up in a full scale “I will win at all cost” mentality?

·      Sin lead to more and more sin

·      The light turns dark

·       And God cant use you to your full potential

·      You ever just wonder why some folks seem happy, content and you just don’t get it???

o   Maybe your so deep in your sin self the light is to dim to see what God can and will do through you and for you

Now that you’re a believer you should have a new moral compass! What are you ashamed of?

²⁰When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the obligation to do right.

²¹And what was the result? You are now ashamed of the things you used to do, things that end in eternal doom.

·      Each of us can look back in our lives at something we are ashamed of.

·      It leaves a stain in our minds when we think about it.

·      Shame is the awareness of unworthy actions and irreparable damage that we do to others and our painful feeling about it.

·      We have all experienced shame at times.

·      Sin -- no matter what it is or how small it seems -- always leads to shame.

·      The memories of the past are stained and blotted by this sense of shame that we experience.

o   We all know what it is like -- those shameful deeds that we would like to forget, but can't;

o   hurtful words that we wish we had never said;

o   strained relationships that go on for years,

o   you ever feel uncomfortable around someone you sinned against?

o   Have you ever done something to someone you wish you would have never done!

o   Shame is a powerful reminder of the consequence of sin in our lives

o   Use it to remember that Sin leads to death!

§  Death of a friendship

§  Death of a Job

§  Death of a marriage

Galatians 6:7–10 (NLT)

⁷Don’t be misled—you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant.

⁸Those who live only to satisfy their own sinful nature will harvest decay and death from that sinful nature. But those who live to please the Spirit will harvest everlasting life from the Spirit.

⁹So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up.

¹⁰Therefore, whenever we have the opportunity, we should do good to everyone—especially to those in the family of faith.

·      You want to show folks Jesus, Love on your church family

·      If you talk bad about, don’t support your churh and if family we show the world what it wants to see

·      We give folks and excuse to not see Jesus for who he really is and what he can do in and through His children!

Death or Life what will it be????

²²But now you are free from the power of sin and have become slaves of God. Now you do those things that lead to holiness and result in eternal life.

²³For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.

Life and death -- the two results.

·      What is death? When Paul talks about death here, he is not talking about a funeral which comes at the end of your life (though that certainly is what death is).

·      He is talking about something that you experience right now while you are alive.

·      Death is both physical and moral; the one is a picture of the other.

·      Physical death always involves darkness, the end of light and life.

·      It involves limitation, for a corpse is helpless -- what can it do for itself?

·      And it involves, ultimately, corruption -- the corpse begins to stink and smell, it becomes foul and decayed, rottenness sets in.

That is what happens when we sin as believers.

These same elements of death are present.

There is, first of all, darkness. I can look back in my own life and see how, as a young Christian, there were times when I struggled and struggled to understand passages of Scripture.

I couldn't seem to grasp them; they were closed to me.

Others understood them and seemed to be rejoicing in them, but I couldn't –

until God, in his mercy, began to deal with me about things that I was doing that I knew were wrong.

Finally, God led me to the place where I would be free.

I would repent and turn from these things and come into the freedom that God had given me in Christ.

Then I would discover that the Scriptures began to open up, and light came into my darkness.

Do you ever just not get it??

·      I meet Christians all the time who do not seem to understand many of the truths of the Word of God.

·      I don't know if this is always the explanation, but in many cases it is -- because they are deliberately allowing things in their lives that they know are wrong.

·      They don't realize that these things spread death.

·      Darkness sets in, and they cannot see the light.

2 Corinthians 4:4 (NLT)

⁴Satan, who is the god of this world, has blinded the minds of those who don’t believe. They are unable to see the glorious light of the Good News. They don’t understand this message about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God.

·      I am not suggesting that there are things that we do that forever limit the opportunities God gives us.

·      But I know that as long as we cling to things that we know are wrong, justifying them in our lives and refusing to enter into the freedom that God gives us, there is a loss of opportunity.

·      That is why many Christians never seem to have occasion to discover the adventure of serving God.

o   They sit with folded arms, watching other people having fun and excitement, while nothing opens for them. Oftentimes it is because of this very thing -- the choices of sin that we make.

Death means a lessening of our experience of freedom and delight in the things of God and an increase in boredom and dullness.

·      Sometimes our lives become utterly nauseating to us.

·      Have you ever felt that way?

·      Sometimes your whole Christian experience almost stinks in your own nostrils.

·      That is a sign of the death that sin brings with it.