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Exodus 19-20
March 30, 2008
Exordium: What is the most important event in the world before the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ? It is the giving of the moral law of God in the form of the Ten Commandments. For then the Eternal God drew very close to us and showed us what we are to believe about Him and how He wants us to live the good life, simply and deliberately.
Explication: How important it is that we understand this great occurrence? Just now the significance of Sinai is eclipsed by situation ethics and by those who would minimize the role of the Old Testament in the lives of Christian people and the Church. And God’s law is ignored when one who does not believe in the true God tells us what we are to do and not do. They may have a sentimental idea of God but it is an idol of their own making. Such a one needs to be delivered from that idolatry just as the Israelites were delivered from the idols of Egypt. This is a time to rediscover the beauty and the power of Gods moral code. From the preface in Genesis, chapter 19 and the preamble in chapter 20, what shall we teach our children about God’s great gift at Sinai?
THE MORAL LAW IS FROM GOD HIMSELF
John 20:20
Easter, March 23, 2008
Exordium: Usually on Easter morning the preacher takes the morning of that first Easter day and describes the glad surprise and blessing of the Lord’s rising from the dead. But I will depart from tradition and speak of Easter Evening because there the factuality and the meaning of Christ’s rising from the dead are summarized very well for us.
Explication: It is twilight in the Upper Room. They are lighting the lamps in the city and in the building. The doors are shut –tight, against any hostility left over from excitement. The disciples of Jesus are huddled together. They have been busy talking together since morning, trying to understand what has happened. Peter and John have the floor most of the day, describing very carefully what they saw early that same morning.
And then there stands the Master Himself, the One about whom they have been speaking. He passed into the room somehow. He did not come through the bolted doors.
Their experience tells us so much – and brings us close to the fact and the significance of the Easter miracle. The Holy Spirit sums it up for us in verse 19 and 20 of chapter 20.
“Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst, and said to them. “Peace be with you.” And He showed them His hands and His side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord.” What struck the disciples in this moment?
THEY WERE STRUCK WITH THE REALITY OF THE RISEN CHRIST
I Peter 1:18,19
Good Friday, March 21, 2008
We have seen together the necessity of the cross, that Christ might free us from the curse of sin becoming the curse for us. (Gal. 3:13) We have seen the meaning of the wounds of Christ and how essential they are: revealing God’s wrath, exhibiting His love, and displaying His mercy for us.
In this last message we are on the holiest of all ground. What place and necessity is there for the blood of Jesus Christ our Savior? The New Testament has so many passages about Christ’s precious blood that one is pressed to choose, but we have taken these words of the Apostle Peter, “You know that you were ransomed from your futile ways inherited from your fathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.” (Peter 1:18, 19)
In the passion account the blood of Christ is ever before us beginning at Gethsemane where the anguish was so great that blood was forced from his pores, to the scourging with cords imbedded with stones to cause the back to bleed, and the crown of thorns pressed down on His brow. Throughout His suffering, blood trickled from the wounds we have come to love. And at the last, as if to empty the sacred heart of its last drops, the soldier thrust in the sword and out came water and blood. He gave it all – every last drop of blood was poured out. His blood was the only part of Himself physically that Christ left on earth. His body and His bones ascended into heaven, but His blood remains behind as a title of ownership of His people.
THIS OWNERSHIP IS AT A GREAT PRICE
