I know we have all heard a few really great sermons, and maybe a few that weren’t so great concerning Easter.
However, it seems my focus on Christ is what He did for us, the depths of the sacrifice, thinking the better we understand His love for us, His sacrifice for us, the more we will love Him, the greater the passion we will have for knowing Him, and the more resolution we will have for obeying His commands.
It is on this day the Christian world celebrates as the anniversary of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the first to be resurrected among many, along with many here this evening.
Just think about it, we will know each other for all eternity, for all time, never an ending.
We all owe our eternal life to this one man. We owe the forgiveness of our sins to this one man. We owe the elimination of the void in our lives here on earth to this One Man.
He is the Greatest man in history, had no servants, yet they called him Master. Had no degree, yet they called him Teacher. Had no medicines, yet they called him Healer. He had no army, yet kings feared Him. He won no military battles, yet He conquered the world. He committed no crime, yet they crucified Him. He was buried in a tomb, yet He lives today.
We often think of the three or four days preceding this Sunday we all celebrate, and hold in awe, yet it was 33 years in the making, it wasn’t 6 hours of suffering on a cross, it was 33 years of suffering, it was 33 years of being tempted as all men, yet He didn’t sin.
He was born in a place of no repute, no respect, to a family of no high esteem, born as a mamzer in the Jewish culture of that time, which means he was born too soon, and it was declared that any child born too soon, was at fault, not the parents, but the child, and that child was not supposed to live past childhood, and if he did he was not to receive respect from any man, and we see in Psalm 69 which is a dual prophecy for both King David and King Jesus Christ that He didn’t even receive respect from His own family.
We see in Isaiah 53 He was of no appearance, in fact men would only look at him sideways,
Isaiah 53:3
He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.
We see in Luke 9:58 And Jesus said to him, “The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.”
Again in
Isaiah 53:
4 Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted.
5 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.
6 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.
Listen to the cries of our Lord, and I would suspect it may have been in that garden of prayer the night before the greatest evil, and the greatest glory have ever been on earth.
Psalm 69:
1 Save me, O God, for the waters have come up to my neck.
2 I sink in the miry depths, where there is no foothold. I have come into the deep waters; the floods engulf me.
3 I am worn out calling for help; my throat is parched. My eyes fail, looking for my God.
4 Those who hate me without reason Out number the hairs of my head;many are my enemies without cause, those who seek to destroy me. I am forced to restore what I did not steal.
5 You, God, know my folly; my guilt is not hidden from you.
6 Lord, the Lord Almighty, may those who hope in you not be disgraced because of me; God of Israel, may those who seek you not be put to shame because of me.
7 For I endure scorn for your sake, and shame covers my face.
8 I am a foreigner to my own family, a stranger to my own mother’s children;
9 for zeal for your house consumes me, and the insults of those who insult you fall on me.
10 When I weep and fast, I must endure scorn;
11 when I put on sackcloth, people make sport of me.
12 Those who sit at the gate mock me, and I am the song of the drunkards.
13 But I pray to you, Lord, in the time of your favor; in your great love, O God, answer me with your sure salvation.
14 Rescue me from the mire, do not let me sink; deliver me from those who hate me, from the deep waters.
15 Do not let the floodwaters engulf me or the depths swallow me up or the pit close its mouth over me.
16 Answer me, Lord, out of the goodness of your love; in your great mercy turn to me.
17 Do not hide your face from your servant; answer me quickly, for I am in trouble.
18 Come near and rescue me; deliver me because of my foes.
19 You know how I am scorned, disgraced and shamed; all my enemies are before you.
20 Scorn has broken my heart and has left me helpless; I looked for sympathy, but there was none, for comforters, but I found none.
21 They put gall in my food and gave me vinegar for my thirst.
So who was/ or is this man, this Jesus Christ that came, suffered as a child, as a young person, and as a man, among the lowest of humanity, without appearance, without wealth, family status, who not only took our sins, but our pain, our suffering, our grief all upon himself.
John 1:1
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2 He was with God in the beginning.
3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.
4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.
5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
This is the most beautiful person, the most beautiful life ever lived. A life lived in suffering for our sins. A life given to its own creation. A father who took the responsibility of His own children’s , His creation’s fall.
It was He who created all, it was He who suffered in the Garden when Mankind fell from grace.
It was Him, who came in the form of a man to offer to heal the broken relationship between the creator and the created, if we only will accept it… a free gift.. life without end.
Yet we live in a world that once again crucifies Him, and we stand by and watch. A country founded as a place of worship for Him, a country that was formed as a living temple for our savior, and we stand by and watch evil men attempt to destroy it. What fools they are, and their only hope is salvation through Christ if only someone will show them the way.
He was on that Cross for six hours, preceding that they whipped Him with a cat o nine tales. A whip made of strips of leather that had pieces of glass and metal in them, designed to literally tear the skin off the recipient of this hideous punishment, and most didn’t survive.
They had beat Him so badly he was not recognizable as a human being, In Psalm 22 we find He could look down and see His bones, they had stripped the flesh and muscle from them. They had pulled his beard out, beat him with their fists, and spit upon the creator of the world.
Psalm 22
1 My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? Why are You so far from helping Me, And from the words of My groaning?
2 O My God, I cry in the daytime, but You do not hear; And in the night season, and am not silent.
3 But You are holy, Enthroned in the praises of Israel.
4 Our fathers trusted in You; They trusted, and You delivered them.
5 They cried to You, and were delivered; They trusted in You, and were not ashamed.
6 But I am a worm, and no man; A reproach of men, and despised by the people.
7 All those who see Me ridicule Me; They shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying,
8 “He trusted[b] in the Lord, let Him rescue Him; Let Him deliver Him, since He delights in Him!”
9 But You are He who took Me out of the womb; You made Me trust while on My mother’s breasts.
10 I was cast upon You from birth. From My mother’s womb You have been My God.
11 Be not far from Me, For trouble is near; For there is none to help.
12 Many bulls have surrounded Me; Strong bulls of Bashan have encircled Me.
13 They gape at Me with their mouths, Like a raging and roaring lion.
14 I am poured out like water, And all My bones are out of joint; My heart is like wax; It has melted within Me.
15 My strength is dried up like a potsherd, And My tongue clings to My jaws; You have brought Me to the dust of death.
16 For dogs have surrounded Me; The congregation of the wicked has enclosed Me. They pierced[c] My hands and My feet;
17 I can count all My bones. They look and stare at Me.
18 They divide My garments among them, And for My clothing they cast lots.
19 But You, O Lord, do not be far from Me; O My Strength, hasten to help Me!
20 Deliver Me from the sword, My precious life from the power of the dog.
21 Save Me from the lion’s mouth And from the horns of the wild oxen! And they murdered Him, hung Him on a cross.
And He did it all for me, and for You.
1 Corinthians 11:
24 and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.”
25 In the same way He took the cup also after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.”
26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.…
And so now let’s take this bread and this juice, and Lets remember our Christ, our Savior, our Messiah,
Let’s remember how He came from a place of unimaginable glory, to a life filled with pain, dishonor, poverty, and death so that we might have life and have it abundantly.
Sermon delivered to Dick Conner’s Correctional Center MSU Easter Sunday March 27 2016 by Jim Carmichael