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First Presbyterian Church of Inglewood
100 North Hillcrest Ave
Inglewood, California 90301
Telephone numbers: (310) 677-5133
Fax (310) 330-8342
Electronic mail: PRESBYTS@SBCGLOBAL.NET
Palm Sunday, March 20, 2005
Rev. Dr. Harold E Kidd
JESUS PAID IT
ALL
"Then
Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to
them, 'Sit here while I go over there and pray.’ "
Matthew 26:36
During this Lenten Season we
have been considering the theme of Journey
to the Cross. Many of you will recall that we began this journey
considering the Garden of Eden, God's paradise right here on earth. Yet, due to
sin entering into this world through the disobedience of Adam and Eve,
Paradise, given to us in total blessing, became Paradise Lost.
The purpose of God in
sending his Son Jesus to this world, was ultimately to die for our sin. Sin has
an inescapable penalty. The penalty for sin is always death. One of the first
principles Adam and Eve ever learned from God was that in the day they ate of
the forbidden fruit, they would die (Genesis 2:17). They didn't fully understand
that 'death' meant a spiritual separation from God.
Then on that sad day when
Adam and Eve stood over the lifeless body of their son, Abel, who had been
killed at the hand of his own brother Cain, they became aware of what death
really meant. For even though God had pronounced physical death upon them, to
this time that had yet to see the effects of death upon a living person.
The final aspect of death is
still future and is called "the second death" or eternal death. This
will be the final eternal state of all who die on this earth without ever
having their spiritual lives restored. This is not a state of eternal
unconsciousness, but rather one of very real torment and remorse for ever and
ever, as taught by Jesus himself in Matthew 8:12 and Luke 16:19 -31.
As we consider this text,
there are three words I want to share with you and their meaning, words that
all believers should hold close to their heart. They are: propitiation,
redemption, and substitution.
Propitiation is used in
Romans 3:25. In speaking of our Lord's death on the cross, Paul writes,
"Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood,
to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through
the forbearance of God." Propitiation means that the perfect sacrifice of
Jesus Christ upon the cross has removed God's punishment for sin of death.
Propitiation is towards God. Christ's death has satisfied God's anger and wrath
upon sin.
The second word is
Redemption. In Romans 3:24 Paul writes, we
are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by
Christ Jesus. Redemption means we
have been set free from the slave market of sin and brought out from under
Satan's authority. Christ's death did that for us. Redemption is toward sin, Christ having set us free from slavery
to sin. Christ purchased our freedom, and the price was his death.
The final word which bears
heavily upon the text before Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane is the word
Substitutionary Death. He left the Upper Room going to the Garden of Gethsemane
having instituted the Last Supper saying "This is my Blood which is shed
for the remission of sins." Substitutionary death means Jesus died in our
place.
In Adam and Eve's
disobedience and sin having entered into the entire human race through them,
God established a principle that an innocent substitute must die to provide a
temporary atonement for our sinfulness. Genesis records the fact that Abel,
Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob all offered sacrifices to God before the time of Moses
and the institution of the tabernacle worship.
In the story of the Passover
experience of the Hebrews in Egypt we see that God ordained that one lamb could
suffice as a Substitutionary sacrifice for one family (Exodus 12: 3-14). In
order to spare the Hebrews the death of their first-born, God made the
provision that they could kill a lamb and sprinkle its blood over the door and
on the two doorposts. Then when the death angel passed over the land of Egypt
that night, wherever he saw the blood, he would pass over that house, and those
inside would be spared God's judgement.
After the Jews left their
servitude in Egypt and were on their way to the promised land, God met Moses on
Mount Sinai and gave Moses the ten commandments and many other laws by which
the people were to regulate their lives and their worship.
Moses was commanded to
construct a portable building which was to be used in their worship and
sacrificing to God. This was called the "Tabernacle."
It was made of an outside court in which there was an altar for the animal
sacrifices. There were two rooms on the inside. The first room was called the
"Holy Place" and had
several articles of furniture that were involved in the worship of God. The
innermost room was the most important spot in the tabernacle. It was called the
"Holy of Holies", and it
was where the presence of God dwelt above the ark in a blaze of light called
the "Shekinah Glory".
It was in this Holy of
Holies that God ordained that the blood of one sacrificial lamb could atone for
the sins of the whole nation of Israel from year to year. It was the job of the
high priest to select a perfect animal once a year and take the blood of it
into the Holy of Holies and sprinkle it on the mercy seat. In so doing, it
appeased God's wrath against the nation for another year by atoning for the
sins of the people. This day came to be called the "Day of Atonement."
So in the Old Testament we
see God having set up a system for substitutionary death. In Genesis 4, one lamb for one man. In Exodus
12, one lamb for one family. In Leviticus 16, one lamb for a nation.
But then when we get to the
New Testament, God prepares for the ultimate substitutionary offering. Jesus' cousin, John the Baptist, is the
first to call Jesus by the name "Lamb of God". When we read Hebrews
chapter 10, it says:
When Christ came into the world, He said sacrifices
and offerings You did not desire, but a body You prepared for me; with burnt
offerings and sin offerings You were not pleased. Then I said, here I am -- it
is written about Me in the scroll -- I have come to do your will, O God.
First He said, sacrifices and offerings, burnt
offerings and sin offerings You did not desire, nor were You pleased with them
(although the law required them to be made). Then He said, here I am, I have come to do
Your will. He sets aside the first to establish the second. And by that will,
we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once
and for all.
Once and for all.
Hallelujah! Once and for all Jesus through the shedding of His own blood was
willing to pay for our sins.
One lamb to redeem one
person. One lamb to redeem one family. One lamb to redeem a nation. And now the ultimate act -- one lamb to save
the entire world.
We have been traveling with
the Lord in his journey to the cross. We have a stake in all of this; all human
beings have a stake in this. We are not impartial bystanders. We all must
recognize that we are the reason for his Calvary. We must ask ourselves the
question, and we know the answer even before we ask:
"Was it for crimes that I have done
He groaned upon the tree?
Amazing pity! Grace unknown!
And love beyond degree."
We have so sanitized the
cross and so sanitized how they killed our Lord that we have forgotten as well
that we too have participated in the death of our Lord by virtue of our own
sin. It was not they who killed, but it was us. We are somewhere in that crowd.
Yet, he died for us. The reality is that our redemption would not have happened
without Gethsemane.
What happened in Gethsemane
was the axis which turned the tide in favor of our purchase on Good Friday. No
picture of Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane can fully capture the agony he
went through as he wrestled with our redemption at the price of his own blood.
Gethsemane, the place of
agonized prayer. Gethsemane, the place where sweat like great drops of blood
fell from the forehead of our Lord. Gethsemane, the place where a few trusted
friends fall asleep in earth's most crucial hour of need. Gethsemane!
I wonder what was contained
in His prayer, "If it be possible, let this cup pass from me." I
wonder did He think about the fact that He was only thirty-three years of age,
with the best years of His life still ahead of Him. I wonder, did He think
about the fact there was still much training yet to do in preparing His
disciples for such an important work. Three years is a very short time to
prepare a small group of followers for this work. That God has offered
Salvation to this world in the giving of His Son Jesus. Wouldn't more time for
the preparation of these unsteady disciples, who really did not understand the
ultimate mission of their Lord, make them more effective?
I wonder what went through
His mind as He prayed this prayer, "If it be possible, let this cup pass
from me." Maybe Jesus realized His love for humanity would be put to its
greatest ultimate test at the cross. For as Jesus was being crucified, came in
the taunts and jeers of this angry mob, saying, "You who be the Son of
God, come down from the cross. You claimed to be a son of Abraham, You saved
others, yet You cannot save Yourself." The Devil came incarnate in the
hate of an angry mob to taunt our Lord, to tempt Him to come down from the
cross.
Then there would be those at
his crucifixion hungry for blood, who live for the thrill of seeing violence,
yelling crucify Him! While He suffered, Roman soldiers yet would be rolling
dice at the foot of the cross for His garment. Would love stand the test of
offering forgiveness in the frenzy of a mob such as this? It’s one thing to love others when they
reciprocate our love, but when love is trampled under foot, when love is
mocked, jeered, spit upon, and hung out on an old rugged cross, will love yet
be resolute to reach out in love?
Given the many possibilities
of what may have gone through the master’s mind as He prayed in Gethsemane, it
is not strange that He prayed, "If it be possible, let this cup pass from
me."
Gethsemane represents a mind
made up to do God's Will. I wonder how many today have a made-up mind to go
with Him all the way. If some turn back, are you resolved to go with Him
anyhow? If some stop coming to church, are you resolved to continue to offer
Him your sincere worship? When the devil gets on our trail, trying to make us
give in, quit, will we think about Jesus in that Garden and say to the Devil,
"Get behind me, you old devil, you can't make me doubt Him. I know too much about Him, I will serve the
Lord! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!