| Transcript of Holy Week Devotional prepared and presented by Wayne Parker on
Tue 10-Apr-1995 to Trinity Church Congregational, Bolton, MA
================================================================================
- Opening Hymn: First three verses of 56, Hallelujah, What a Saviour!
This morning we will examine the critical uniqueness of Jesus Christ's
life and death as inferred from His agony in Gethsemane. The Greek word agonia
denotes severe emotional strain and mental anguish, and is used in the New
Testament only by Luke (22:44) to describe the dreadful struggle through which
our Lord passed in the garden.
- Scripture Reading: Matthew 26:36-46
Luke 22:39-46
- Prayer
The circumstances of this great conflict also are recorded in Mark
14:32-42; and Hebrews 5:7-8. Luke alone notices the agony, the bloody sweat,
and the appearance of the strengthening angel. All agree that our Lord prayed
for the removal of "this cup," and are careful to note His ultimate deference to
His Father's will. The question is, what did Christ mean by "this cup?" What
was the cause of His sorrow unto death? Were the sufferings of Jesus radically
different from those of the saints throughout history? Was His death unparalled
as the redemptive act of the Savior of the world, or did Christ die merely as a
martyr? Was our Lord's death vicarious, redemptive and substitutionary, or does
it stand only as an ethically influential example of perhaps misguided bravery?
Before we delve into answering this question, let us first consider the
disciples our Lord took with Him to Gethsemane, particularly Peter, James and
John. Note that Luke documents Jesus' personal struggle with no mention of the
disciples' names, while Matthew and Mark document the disciples' struggle to
remain alert. All accounts document our Lord's admonition to the disciples to
watch and pray that they might not enter into temptation. Matthew and Mark go
on to include Jesus' statement that "the spirit is willing, but the flesh is
weak."
I often hear the disciples criticized in hindsight for not staying awake
to encourage our Lord during His agony. I submit that Jesus' admonition perhaps
derived much more from His deep compassion for them than from His disappointment
in them. In Jesus' dealing with His disciples, I see both clear identification
with their (and our) humanness and clear affirmation of His own uniqueness. The
disciples' falling asleep came as no surprise or discouragement to our Lord, but
rather reinforced their (and our) need for Him to suffer and die. Jesus had to
do what they were unable to do for themselves.
Present-day thinking seems dominated by the spirit of relativism. This
view professes to find elements similar to Christianity in the various ethnic
faiths. The tendency is more and more to disallow absolutes, and to deny the
uniqueness of Christ, thus putting His birth, life and death on a general par
with the experience of other great and good men. The question of relativism in
relation to the uniqueness of Christ posits one of the most profound problems in
our religious climate today. We must realize that faith in the uniqueness of
Christ and the absolutes of Christianity is not an attainment of human intellect
or human brilliance. Rather, our faith is gained through the enlightenment of
the Spirit of God, the selfsame Spirit of Christ who now indwells the believer.
Looking at the Gospel accounts, we see the sufferings of Christ as
entirely different from those of any other human being. His agony in the garden
and the bloody sweat were the result not merely of extreme mental and physical
anguish on the human plane but were elicited when the sinless soul of the Son of
God came in contact with the weight of the world's sin. Luke's account of
Gethsemane's dark anguish is otherwise unexplainable. Christ's suffering on the
cross was much more than the excruciating pain of crucifixion or body-racking
thirst--other men have endured as much or more. The cross of Christ is a
travesty unless He who hung there knew no sin but was made a sacrifice for sin
that we in Him might stand righteous before God. The Sinless One coming in
contact with our sin and enduring the wrath of God against sin are the only
plausible explanations of Christ's great suffering. The flaw of most modern
treatments of the life of Christ is that our Lord differed only in degree from
other men, whereas the Gospels present Him as God become flesh, Deity and
humanity united in one Person wholly without sin or deceit.
What then was "this cup?" For answer to the question I quote Edersheim:
"Not fear, either of bodily or mental suffering, but death. Man's nature,
created of God immortal, shrinks (by the law of its nature) from the dissolution
of the bond that binds body to soul. Yet to fallen man death is not by any
means fully death, for he is born with the taste of it in his soul. Not so
Christ. It was the unfallen Man dying; it was He, who had no experience of it,
tasting death, and that not for Himself, but for every man, emptying the cup to
its bitter dregs. It was the Christ undergoing death by man and for man; the
incarnate God, the God-man, submitting Himself vicariously to the deepest
humiliation, and paying the utmost penalty: death--all death. No one could know
what death was (not dying which men dread, but Christ dreaded not); no one could
taste its bitterness as He. His going into death was His final conflict with
Satan for man, and on his behalf. By submitting to it, He took away the power
of death. He disarmed Death by burying his shaft in His own heart. And beyond
this lies the deep, unutterable mystery of Christ bearing the penalty due to our
sin, bearing our death, bearing the penalty of the broken law, the accumulated
guilt of humanity, and the holy wrath of the righteous Judge upon them" (Life of
Jesus, ii, 538, 539).
Peter, James and John fell asleep in the midst of our Lord's great
heaviness and sorrow. Not only were they tired, but also could they not enter
into Christ's suffering, even had they understood He was going to die. We must
understand the disciples' failure to stay awake given that Jesus had to suffer
alone.
As this Holy Week progresses, let us allow the Spirit of God to break
our hearts with the enormity of sin and effect our gratitude for Christ's work
on our behalf. I submit that this may have been on the Apostle Paul's mind as
he wrote "...that I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection and the
fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death..." (Philippians
3:10).
- Closing Hymn: Last two verses of 56, Hallelujah, What a Saviour!
|
| "He Loved Me With a Cross"
He left the throne in Heaven to come to Bethlehem;
And I will not forget the way He loved me even then;
And ev'rywhere He traveled, He spoke with words of love
That said He'd go to any distance to show what I was worthy of.
And when at last that dusty road turned to Calvary,
He picked up a rugged burden so that one day I would see:
He loved me with a cross, He loved me with a cross;
In answer to the call of love He loved me with a cross.
He knew from the beginning the price He'd have to pay,
For my heart had gone so far beyond what other loves forgave;
I wasn't on that hillside to see Him on that tree,
But as my guilt was placed upon Him, I know that somehow He saw me.
He loved me with a cross, He loved me with a cross;
In answer to the call of love He loved me with a cross.
Oh I could not imagine what loving me would cost;
For Jesus went to Calvary and loved me with a cross!
And I would be a sinner still, enslaved by all my sins,
If it had not been for Jesus, and the way He loved me then!
He loved me with a cross, He loved me with a cross;
In answer to the call of love He loved me with a cross.
Oh I could not imagine what loving me would cost;
My Jesus went to Calvary and loved me with a cross!
Joel Lindsey and Sue C. Smith
arranged by Lari Goss
Copyright 1994 Paragon Music Corp./
John T. Benson Publishing Co./
First Verse Music/
ASCAP.
All Rights Reserved.
All Rights controlled by Benson Music Group, Inc., Nashville, TN.
(sung by Larnell Harris!)
|
| Transcript of the 1991 Easter Sonrise Service sermon prepared and presented to
Trinity Church Congregational by Wayne Parker
================================================================================
We are gathered this morning to commemorate and celebrate the resurrection
of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The resurrection of Jesus from the dead
has elicited many theories and resulted in many controversies and differences
of opinion. This is undoubtedly due to the fact that the resurrection is a
fundamental truth. Without the resurrection our Christian faith is empty; with
the resurrection a central note in gospel preaching is and will be "now is
Christ risen from the dead."
Many people for two thousand years have attempted to "explain away" the
historical fact of, and the Biblical teaching about, the resurrection. Later
today Harry Otaguro will speak to the doctrine of the resurrection in terms of
historical fact and Raymond Coffey will deal with results or application of the
resurrection in Christian living. I will address the resurrection principle in
terms of what is said about God, Christ and us as believers.
Our first Scripture reading this morning provided insight into the mind
and position of Christ. Christ was and now is the outward expression of God's
true, essential nature and bears God's identity. But, Christ chose to empty
Himself and become like us, even to suffering and death, so that we who have
sinned unlike Him could become like Him through belief in His name. In other
words, God made Himself vulnerable with the result that none can now or ever
refute Jesus Christ as Lord. We who have received Christ Jesus the Lord are to
live in Him, growing like a plant in good soil, becoming more sure of our
faith, and overflowing with gratitude. We are to be careful that nobody spoils
our faith through intellectualism or high-sounding reason founded on men's
ideas of the nature of the world and disregarding of Christ. In Christ God
gives a full and complete expression of Himself, and our own completeness is
realized only in Christ. We are being set free from sin by virtue of Christ's
action, and, just as in baptism we shared in Christ's death, we now share in
rising again to new life, all because we rely on the same power of God who
raised Christ from the dead.
Our second Scripture reading this morning established Jesus as a man. He
blessed and broke the five loaves and two fishes in order to feed five thousand
men (plus women and children). Then He asked His disciples whom people and
they themselves said that He was. Some thought Jesus was John the Baptist,
Elijah, or an old prophet who was risen again. But Peter answered that Jesus
was the Christ of God, and Christ validated that identification by telling of
His suffering to come, His rejection and death, and His resurrection. Remember
that Jesus said in Luke 9:22 that He would "be raised," not that He would rise,
on the third day. In the passage from John 20 Christ appeared after His
resurrection to His fearful disciples. They recognized Him as Jesus, but
Thomas, who had not been with them when Jesus appeared, doubted their story.
Thomas needed physical evidence before he could believe. Then eight days later
Jesus again appeared to His disciples, including Thomas. Not only did Jesus
know what evidence Thomas required, but He stood there before Thomas in
touchable, bodily form complete with nail prints in His hands and a hole in His
side. Thomas indeed recognized the same Jesus with whom he had walked and
talked prior to Christ's death and burial. Christ affirmed Thomas' belief in
seeing (and touching), but spoke highly of those who believed and would believe
without seeing.
What has been established so far? Christ became a man with flesh and
blood like us, who experienced physical and emotional feeling like us, and
who, though having done no wrong, died in shame and disgrace like a criminal.
Jesus Christ lived as a man in obedience to God, and, at His death as an
innocent man, commended His spirit to God. In other words, Christ trusted
God for the results. The body in which the disciples saw the risen Lord was
real, that in which they had seen Him living, and that which had died. And
yet, as is presented in the Gospel accounts of His post-resurrection
appearances during the forty days and of His ascension, His body was changing
and changed.
The resurrection of Christ is represented in the Scriptures as wrought by
the power of God. Certainly, the resurrection establishes Christ's divine
character, serves as God's seal of approval on Christ's atoning work, and
connects with our spiritual renewal as the new life of believers comes from the
risen Christ. But, more importantly, the resurrection of Christ verifies the
resurrection principle, i.e., the true followers of Christ will be raised and
glorified.
Consider now 1 Corinthians 15:12-23 (The New Testament in Modern English,
translated by J.B. Phillips): "Now if the rising of Christ from the dead is
the very heart of our message, how can some of you deny that there is any
resurrection? For if there is no such thing as the resurrection of the dead,
then Christ was never raised. And if Christ was not raised then neither our
preaching nor your faith has any meaning at all. Further it would mean that we
are lying in our witness for God, for we have given our solemn testimony that
he did raise up Christ--and that is utterly false if it should be true that the
dead do not, in fact, rise again! For if the dead do not rise neither did
Christ rise, and if Christ did not rise, your faith is futile and your sins
have never been forgiven. Moreover those who have died believing in Christ are
utterly dead and gone. Truly, if our hope in Christ were limited to this life
only, we should, of all mankind, be the most to be pitied!
But the glorious fact is that Christ did rise from the dead: He has
become the very first to rise of all who sleep the sleep of death. As death
entered the world through a man, so has rising from the dead come to us
through a man! As members of a sinful race all men die; as members of the
Christ of God all men shall be raised to life, each in his proper order, with
Christ the very first and after Him all who belong to Him when He comes."
Verses 45-49: "It is written, moreover, that, the first man Adam became a
living soul. So the last Adam is a life-giving Spirit. But we should notice
that the order is "natural" first and then "spiritual." The first man came
out of the earth, a material creature. The second man came from Heaven and
was the Lord Himself. For the life of this world men are made like the
material man; but for the life that is to come they are made like the one from
Heaven. So that just as we have been made like the material pattern, so we
shall be made like the Heavenly pattern."
Belief in the physical resurrection presupposes a belief in God. These
two facts cannot be separated. In nearly every case those who deny the
resurrection do so because they have first denied God. To rise from the dead
is a supernatural act. Thus a denial of the supernatural will always result
in a denial of the resurrection; and the denial of the resurrection generally
reflects disbelief in the supernatural.
Whether or not Jesus rose from the dead is a question whose answer either
validates or invalidates the whole Christian faith. The apostle Paul explores
the problem in the passage I just read. Certain grave consequences of denying
the resurrection are deduced.
Paul argues as follows: If one starts with the assumption that the dead
do not rise, then Christ is not risen. If Christ is not risen, the gospel is
not true and the disciples are false witnesses. A dead Christ means a dead
faith; a dead faith means that believers are still unforgiven and unjustified
sinners; and that those who died supposing Jesus to have been raised from the
dead have perished. Faith in Christ which has reference to this life only and
does not comprise life and resurrection power beyond the grave leaves man in
despair.
In short, if Jesus arose from the grave we have a valid faith; if He did
not rise we have no faith and no hope, not just because He did not rise, but
because there is no resurrection from the dead.
"But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those
who are asleep." By a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of
the dead. As in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall live, each in
order: Christ first, after that all those who are Christ's at His coming.
God verified the resurrection principle in raising His Christ from the
dead. Christ lived as a man in obedience to God and died as a man trusting
God. God raised Christ from the dead, exalted Him and placed everything under
His feet; therefore, we who strive to obey God in this life and belief in and
rely on Christ as God's provision for our shortcoming also will be raised to
inherit the kingdom of God. In other words, Christ's resurrection demonstrates
that there is resurrection--we who believe will be raised to a new life. When
we shall see Him, we shall be like Him!
BECAUSE HE LIVES, I CAN FACE TOMORROW!
HOW GREAT IS THE GOD WE ADORE!
|
| Text of Holy Week Devotional prepared and presented by Wayne Parker to Trinity
Church Congregational on Wednesday, April 3, 1996
================================================================================
- Opening Hymn: First three verses of 68, I Am Not Skilled to Understand
Last year we examined the critical uniqueness of Jesus Christ's life and
death as inferred from His agony in Gethsemane. The Gospel accounts show the
sufferings of Christ as entirely different from those of any other human being,
and we saw the sinless Son of God coming in contact with our sin and enduring
the wrath of God against sin as the only plausible explanation of Christ's great
anguish. We also noted that Peter, James and John fell asleep in the midst of
our Lord's great heaviness and sorrow. I suggested that we should not criticize
the disciples, but rather see failure to stay awake as both proving their
humanness and reinforcing their (and our) need for Jesus to suffer and die alone
in accomplishing what we are unable to do for ourselves.
Now we will examine John's account of Jesus' interaction with and
intercession for the disciples just prior to His entering the garden of
Gethsemane. Jesus' agony recorded by Luke reveals God's pain, whereas John's
account reveals God's purpose.
- Scripture Reading: John 16:19-33
- Prayer
John 16:32 clearly indicates that Jesus knew the disciples would leave
Him alone; therefore, their falling asleep later in the garden came as no
surprise. Our Lord certainly knew their (and our) shortcomings as He spoke the
words recorded in chapter 17.
Chapter 17 warrants a much more thorough investigation than time this
morning permits. Let us nonetheless endeavor to cull seeds that the Holy Spirit
might later bring to fruition concerning the Truth of God revealed in Jesus
Christ. Jesus' prayer reveals the will and action of God in six (6) unique
areas to effect our salvation:
- VALIDATION of His Son (read vs. 1-5);
Jesus asks the Father to glorify the Son that He might in turn glorify
the Father. Simply put, to glorify means to honor, to praise or to exalt,
implying the demonstration of virtue and excellence. Jesus affirms that eternal
life comes through Him. How? Eternal life is knowing [GINOSKO denoting a
relationship between the knower and the known, based on experience and growth,
not merely observation or theory] the only true God and Jesus the Christ of God.
The Father glorified the Son by giving Him work to do that no one else could do,
and Jesus glorified the Father by finishing His work on earth, crediting the
Father always with righteousness and obeying even unto death. In other words,
only God in the flesh could live without sin, so the Father showed Jesus to be
God by His life and the Son showed the Father to be God by submitting to His
will, even death on the cross.
- IDENTIFICATION with man (read vs. 6-10);
Jesus affirms both Himself in plainly showing the very nature of the
Father and His disciples in receiving, believing and keeping His words. Jesus
goes on to affirm that all His are the Father's, all the Father's are His, and
that He was indeed glorified in men.
- PRESERVATION from evil (read vs. 11-16);
Jesus invokes the power of God to keep from evil those who received,
believed and kept His word. They are in the world, but not of the world. They
would be hated, but Jesus prayed that His own joy be fulfilled in them.
- SANCTIFICATION through truth (read vs. 17-19);
Jesus asks the Father to sanctify His disciples through Truth. To
sanctify means to reserve or set apart for sacred use or to make holy or pure.
He goes on to say that the Father's word is truth. As Jesus was sent into the
world to give men the Father's word, so are His disciples sent into the world.
Jesus clearly reveals the Father's purpose: Those who receive, believe and keep
God's Word are (made) holy as God Himself is holy.
- UNIFICATION of God and man (read vs. 20-23); and
Jesus prays for us also who have believed through the disciples' word.
He unambiguously validates the Holy Scriptures as the means by which we come to
know the only true God whom to know is life eternal (v. 3). Moreover, we know
that Jesus had us in mind as He went to the cross! Jesus states His will that
all those who believe on Him be one in God. He goes on to say that the glory
given to the Son by the Father has been given to us that we "may be made perfect
in one; and that the world may know" that the Father sent the Son and loved us
as He loved the Son. Jesus clearly indicates He came that we might be (made)
like Him!
- GLORIFICATION with Christ (read vs. 24-26).
Jesus states His will that we be with Him where He is, that we see Him
as He is to be glorified with Him. Jesus said to the Father, "I have declared
unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved
me may be in them, and I in them." THEM IS US!
"Let us strip off everything that hinders us, as well as the sin which
dogs our feet, and let us run the race that we have to run with patience, our
eyes fixed on Jesus the source and the goal of our faith. For He Himself endured
a cross and thought nothing of its shame because of the joy He knew would follow
His suffering; and He is now seated at the right hand of God's throne. Think
constantly of Him enduring all that sinful men could say against Him, and you
will not lose your purpose or your courage." (Hebrews 12:1b-3, The New Testament
in Modern English translated by J.B. Phillips)
During this season as we focus on Jesus, the source and the goal of our
faith, may the Holy Spirit bring to mind that which Jesus saw as He viewed the
cross in light of our eternal glory.
"Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we
should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it
knew Him not. Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear
what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him;
for we shall see Him as He is. And every man that hath this hope in Him
purifieth himself, even as He is pure." (1 John 3:1-3, KJV)
Closing Hymn: Last two verses of 68, I Am Not Skilled to Understand
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