The Fulfillment of the Law.
Jeremiah 31:31-34- Who is Jesus?
- Jesus is the Christ.
- Seed of woman that would crush Satan (Genesis 3:15)
- King and priest like Melchizedek (Hebrews 7:15 / Psalm 110:4 / Genesis 14:18-20)
- Prophet like Moses (Deuteronomy 18:15)
- Descendent of David on the throne forever (2 Samuel 7)
- Suffering servant (Isaiah 53)
John 5:39 - You search the Scriptures bc you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me.
- Jesus is God.
Review: John 1:1 | Zechariah 12:10 | Acts 20:28
- What did Jesus do for me?
- What should I do about Jesus?
- Admit you are a sinner.
- Believe Jesus died on the cross and rose from the dead for you.
- Confess Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.
- Daily follow Jesus Christ.
Review: Leviticus 16
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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01:04-01:15
So the story goes, there was this Indian tribe where some things were turning up missing.
01:17-01:20
And they went to the Indian chief and they said, "You've got to do something about this.
01:20-01:24
There are things that are being stolen.
01:24-01:46
Somebody in our tribe is stealing." So, the Indian chief said, "When we find out who is stealing, you're going to get five lashes from the whipmaster." Well, some time went on and some more stuff was stolen.
01:48-01:52
The Indian chief, whose word was law, said, "Ten lashes.
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And we find who stole 10 lashes from the whipmaster.
01:59-02:03
Well some more time went on and more things were stolen.
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15!
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15 lashes from the whipmaster!
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And then shortly thereafter they found the thief.
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It was the Indian chief's mother.
02:19-02:21
So what do you do in that situation?
02:22-02:58
you're the chief. When your word is law, and you have people following you because your word is law, but at the same time you can't bear the thoughts of your mother taking such a horrible beating. So as the story goes, the day came where they took the Indian chief's her hands around this hole and they stripped the clothes off of her back.
03:01-03:08
The whipmaster was ready to administer the beating when the Indian chief said stop.
03:10-03:20
And he went up behind his mother and put his arms around her so that his back was now exposed.
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And he said, "You may not proceed in administering the punishment." And he stood there and he took all 15 for his mother, whom he loved.
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See here was a man who couldn't violate his own law, but at the same time he wanted to be merciful.
03:45-03:47
And he found a way to make that happen.
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And in a much greater sense, that's what we're here to celebrate today.
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We have a holy and perfect God who cannot and will not violate His own law.
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But at the same time is loving and merciful and gracious and wishes that none would perish.
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So what would such a God do who gave us a law that we repeatedly broke and break, but He wants to be merciful.
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He found a way.
04:28-04:34
The way was through the cross and the empty tomb of Jesus Christ.
04:36-04:59
We're going to continue Bible 101 today and the sermon title is "Christ, the Fulfillment of the law. And you're like, "Well, Pastor Jeff, that worked out well that you're going through this series and you're speaking about Jesus on Easter. That worked out pretty well." Amazing timing on that, isn't it? Because it would have been, let's be honest, it would have been awkward if it was Easter and we were talking about the Tower of Babel today.
04:59-05:10
That would have been really weird. We've been through this series looking at the Bible from from a fresh perspective with new eyes.
05:11-05:14
We've talked about the Bible being the Word of God.
05:14-05:22
We've seen creation where God created everything in six 24-hour days, and then man violated the one rule - you had one job!
05:23-05:26
And it was to not eat off of this particular tree.
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Sin came into the world and things got so bad that God blotted out every living thing except those on the ark.
05:40-05:50
We did have a message on the Tower of Babel, and shortly after that time, we saw Abraham, through whom God created the nation of Israel.
05:50-05:53
And last week we talked about God's law.
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That to the Israelites, God gave this law.
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God says, "Here's my standard.
05:58-06:08
You must always do this, and you shall never do this." The violation of this law makes you a sinner.
06:11-06:23
So as we continue in this series, I want you to understand that yes, God made a covenant with Israel, but even in the Old Testament, God promised a new covenant was going to replace the old.
06:25-06:34
Jeremiah 31, verses 31-34 says, "Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord." Look at this one.
06:34-06:40
I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah.
06:40-06:47
Not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt.
06:48-06:54
My covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord.
06:56-07:02
For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord.
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"I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts." See, previously the law was written on stone tablets by the finger of God.
07:19-07:29
And God says, "No, I'm going to write the law again, but this time I'm going to write it on their hearts." It's going to be something that's internal, not something that's external.
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He goes on, "I will be their God and they shall be my people.
07:34-07:50
And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord.' For they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,' declares the Lord." This is one of my most favorite verses in the whole Bible.
07:50-07:52
Part of the New Covenant, look what God promises.
07:54-08:02
"I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.
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Can you wrap your brain around that?
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I can't.
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I think many of us have struggled with shame and regret, and we remember our sin a lot.
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We stare at it.
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We think about it.
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When the Lord says, "I'm going to forget." I'm going to choose not to remember your sin.
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How in the world could that happen?
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Because I'm the worst.
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And I've been the worst.
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How could God take somebody like me who has done so many selfish and irresponsible and stupid things and say, "I'm going to make a way that I'm not even going to remember your sin.
08:58-09:05
This new covenant is in Jesus Christ." So this is Bible 101.
09:07-09:11
And I'm going to be, as I was preparing this message, here's the mindset.
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What would I tell somebody about Jesus that doesn't know anything about Jesus?
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He says, "I've heard the name, but I don't know anything about Him." Well, here it is.
09:29-09:31
Who is Jesus, number one? Who is Jesus?
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This is a great question, because every Christmas and Easter, have you noticed this? It drives me insane.
09:42-09:48
I read a blog from another pastor that it bothers him too, and I'm like, "Hey, I feel like I'm in good company." But it drives me insane.
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Every Christmas and Easter, it doesn't fail.
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You can go to the supermarket or wherever they sell magazines, and Time Magazine or Newsweek Magazine or some magazine, some of you nod your heads because you know where I'm going with this, you've seen it, they always come out with some new spin on Jesus, right?
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And the headline on the front of the magazine always says something like, "Who was the real Jesus? Who was the historical Jesus? Who was Jesus really?" And there'll be TV specials on like a National Geographic and the History Channel.
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"Who is the real Jesus?" And of course nobody wants like the biblical version because that story's been told countless times over the past 2,000 years.
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So we're going to roll out some controversial new take so that people will tune in.
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Things like, "Well, Jesus was married.
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Have you heard that one?
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He was married.
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Jesus had kids.
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He didn't really resurrect.
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he thought he was dead, but he actually wasn't.
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He sort of snuck off with Mary Magdalene and got married and had all these kids.
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And like, where do you guys come up with this stuff?
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Well, there's some writings.
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These people wrote in like the, you know, the 300s and hundreds of years after Jesus lived, some historian decided they were gonna write a biography about Jesus and included the stuff that apparently the people that lived with Jesus didn't know about.
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Who is more qualified if somebody had a lot of extra time on their hands, they were going to write a biography about me, who is more qualified to write that biography?
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Somebody sitting here or somebody that's going to live 300 years from now?
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No-brainer, right?
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But that's what happens, they find, you know, the gospel of Douglas or whatever, and all of a sudden, Here we found out some interesting things about Jesus that aren't true.
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But it's Satan's oldest ploy. I mean, it gets on my nerves, but I'm not surprised, because we saw this when we went through the account and sin in Genesis chapter 3, right?
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What's Satan's ploy?
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You doubt the Word of God, right? Did God really say that?
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That's what he did to Adam and Eve. Did God really say that?
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And then you deny the Word of God. "No, no, no, no, God didn't." Remember Satan? "You won't die?" This is Oldest Ploy.
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Who is Jesus?
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Here's two things you need to know about Jesus.
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Number one is Jesus is the Christ.
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He is the Christ.
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This might be news to some of you, but Christ is not Jesus' last name.
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I've talked to people that were shocked to find that out.
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The Christ is actually a title.
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In the Old Testament, it's the Messiah, the anointed one, the one who was promised to Israel all through the Old Testament.
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And I don't have time if I spent the next month to talk about all of these things.
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I just want to give you a few.
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The Messiah promised throughout the Old Testament, the first mention is in Genesis 3, verse 15, when God says the seed of the woman, Eve, would eventually crush Satan.
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That's pointing to a Messiah who was to come.
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The Bible says that the Messiah was going to be a king and priest like Melchizedek.
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Melchizedek is an interesting character you meet in Genesis chapter 14.
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He's mentioned in Psalm 110 verse 4.
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And the Hebrew writer spends a lot of time talking about Melchizedek.
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What's the significance? Well, here's the significance.
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In the nation of Israel, if you were a Levite, you were a priest.
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You met the qualifications.
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But you can't be a Levite priest and a king at the same time under Mosaic law.
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That could not happen.
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You couldn't be a priest and a king simultaneously.
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And the Bible says that the Messiah, He will be.
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He's not only going to be the priest that intercedes on our behalf before God, but He is also going to be a king at the same time.
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a priest like the Levites, but a priest and king like Melchizedek.
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The Bible says in the Old Testament that the Messiah who was coming is going to be a prophet like Moses.
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Moses promised that in Deuteronomy 18.15, "God is going to raise up from among you a prophet like me." Somebody far greater.
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2 Samuel 7, the Messiah was going to be a descendant of David who was going to reign on the throne forever.
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Isaiah 53 says that the Messiah was going to be the suffering servant.
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He was going to come and suffer on behalf of His people because of their, because of our sin.
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In fact, Jesus said all of the Old Testament is about Him.
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Did you know that?
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John 5.39, Jesus said, "You search the Scriptures because you think that in them You have eternal life.
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And it is they that bear witness about Me.
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See, unlike the Indian chief story, you have to see that with all of these prophecies in the Old Testament, Jesus was not an afterthought.
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You see, it wasn't like the earth was around for a few thousand years, and God was sitting around some conference table with His angels, He's like, "You know what, guys?
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This whole Testament law thing, it's just not working.
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In fact, they don't keep any of the commandments. Do you notice that?" The angels are like, "You're right. You're right. They don't." I mean, it's like a game to them.
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How many of these can we break every day?
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It's just not working. What should we do?
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And then they bat around some ideas, and God's like, "Oh, I got this idea.
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What if I came down there myself and I took care of it?" It wasn't an afterthought.
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Nor was it a desperation move.
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Where God was like, "Damage control?
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What are we going to do?
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Earth is really out of control here.
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Maybe I'll just have to go down there and see if I can fix it." This was God's plan from the very beginning.
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In fact, it was God's plan from before the beginning because the Bible says that Jesus Christ is the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world.
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Don't ask me to explain that.
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But even before there were people created to sin, the plan of Jesus was already laid out by God.
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Jesus is the Christ.
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That's what we see in the Old Testament, was God had this.
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He knew this.
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He was prepared for this.
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Second thing you need to know about Jesus, there's a lot of things.
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I'm just trying to boil it down here for the sake of time.
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Jesus is God.
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Jesus is God.
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In the New Testament, John 1, verse 1, it says, "In the beginning was the Word, "the Word was with God, and the Word was God." That sentence makes no human sense whatsoever.
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I'll admit that.
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If I said to you last night, "I was with my friend Nathaniel, "and I was my friend Nathaniel," you'd be like, "What are you talking about?
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"It doesn't make any sense." It doesn't, because we're people that live in time and space.
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We don't know an existence outside of time and space.
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But the Bible says that in the beginning was the Word.
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We find out He's talking about Jesus in just a few verses later.
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The Word was with God. Jesus is with God.
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But Jesus also at the same time is God.
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Again, I don't have time to go through the New Testament to show you all of the verses in the New Testament that say Jesus is God.
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But I do want to share a couple with you, interestingly.
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I want to share a couple of verses with you that say that God is Jesus.
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You know the Bible says that?
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God is Jesus.
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Zechariah 12, verse 10.
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This is in the Old Testament.
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It says, "And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that when they look on Me..." Look at this.
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"...on Him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for Him as one mourns for an only child and weeps bitterly over Him weeps over a firstborn." Who does that sound like He's talking about? "They will look upon me whom they have pierced." Who does that sound like? Anybody? Go ahead, shout it out. Jesus, right? This is in the Old Testament there. This was before the earthly ministry of Jesus Christ, but God was prophesying ahead of time. Notice in the passage, God didn't say, "They will look on my Messiah whom they have pierced." God says, "They will look on me whom they have pierced." God's saying that He He is going to be the Messiah personally.
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Spoiler alert, write Quran Acts chapter 20.
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We're going to get there.
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Acts chapter 20, Paul says to the Ephesian elders, "Pay careful attention to yourselves and all the flock in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God." Look at this last phrase, "Which He obtained with His own blood." Who bought the church with His own blood?
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Jesus did, right?
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Right.
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Notice in this verse, Paul very specifically says, "God bought the church with his own blood." So not only does the Bible say that Jesus, the Messiah, is God in the flesh, God himself says that he is the Messiah.
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In fact, in the book of Hebrews 1, verse eight, I believe, God the Father refers to God the Son as God.
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You're like, "Who's God's God?
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God has a God.
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God says his son is his God.
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You're like, okay, pastor Jeff, stop right there.
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You're gonna have to explain the Trinity and I can't.
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You know, and I've heard some attempts at that.
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You know, God is like a boom box.
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I'm gonna explain this to younger people, but you know, boom box, where do I even start explaining this?
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It was before we played our music on these little credit card size things.
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We had these giant boxes, and they played the radio, and they would play cassette tapes, and they would play CDs.
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And you're like, "Well, a boombox, it's three things, but it's one thing." That analogy breaks down a bit.
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Some people say, "Well, God's like H2O, because H2O, It's like the same element. It can be ice, it can be water, it can be steam.
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And that's true, but it's not those things at the exact same time.
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But God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit at the same time.
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He's one God, but He has manifested Himself as three persons.
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Here's what I know.
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I know that Jesus is fully God and fully man at the same time.
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In other words, Jesus is God's perfect man.
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And Jesus is man's perfect God.
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So what you need to know about Jesus.
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Who is Jesus?
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Jesus is the Christ and Jesus is God.
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Here's the real thing I'm excited to share with you today is this.
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What did Jesus do for me?
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This is what you need to know.
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What did Jesus do for me?
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Jesus willingly subjected Himself to crucifixion, being nailed to a cross.
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It was the Roman form of execution.
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And then three days later, Jesus rose from the dead.
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Why did He do that?
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Jesus died on the cross to pay the penalty for my sin.
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That should have been me on the cross.
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That should have been me.
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I was the one who messed up.
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I was the one who rebelled.
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But Jesus said, "No, I'll take your place." And understand, when Jesus was on the cross, He was bearing the wrath of God on my behalf.
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Jesus was, in a sense, like that Indian chief with his arms around his mother, saying, "I'll take the blows so that she doesn't have to." That was Jesus on the cross.
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But that's not the end of the story, because the Bible says in three days Jesus rose from the dead.
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Not only did it validate who he was and what he said, but that was the means by which the eternal life that we forfeited in the Garden of Eden has been restored.
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So understand, through Jesus Christ, eternal life isn't something you get someday.
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Eternal life is something you possess now.
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when you receive Him, and we'll talk about that in a moment.
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The crucifixion of Jesus Christ was not some random event that God just kind of came along in rubber stamps.
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But when you look at the message and you say, "Okay, well, there was a man who said he was God, and he died on a cross." The truth is, crucifixion wasn't really that unique.
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Because somebody could argue and say, "Well, there have been lots of people that have been crucified under Roman rule.
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What makes Jesus... what makes Him so different? What makes Him so special?
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What makes His death so significant?" When you see the cross, the resurrection, it was the culmination and fulfillment of what was pictured and promised throughout the history of the Old Testament.
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This might be a first for you, but I want you to look at the story of the crucifixion and resurrection And what I'm going to guess is the last book of the Bible you would have guessed.
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We're going to be looking at this account today.
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But you're going to see something that you're not going to be able to unsee.
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And it is going to forever change the way you look at the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
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You ready? Grab your Bible, and I want you to open up to the book of Leviticus, chapter 16.
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This is absolutely mind-blowing to me.
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But Leviticus, you're like, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, I thought we were talking about Jesus and what He did." Well, in the Old Testament, as we talked about last week, God had this whole system set up on how to offer sacrifices, and none of it was arbitrary.
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God wasn't like, "Just offer whatever you want, whenever you want, however you want, with whoever you want." God was very specific.
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Here is exactly how you do it.
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Why was God so specific?
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Because He was painting a picture that would ultimately be fulfilled in Jesus Christ.
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Leviticus 16.
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Also remember in the Old Testament, there was a building called the tabernacle.
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That was the portable version of the temple.
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In the temple there was this little room that was called the "Holy of Holies." And this room was behind a veil.
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And in this room was the Ark of the Covenant.
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And understand that nobody went in this room, because this was the room where the Lord resided, so to speak, where His glory dwelt.
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So you didn't just walk in there, with one exception.
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One time a year, the high priest, and only the high priest, would go into this room to offer a special sacrifice on behalf of the nation of Israel.
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was one of the most important days, if not the most important day for the Israelites.
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It was called the Day of Atonement.
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And we're not going to read all this, but I want you to look at some of these verses with me.
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First of all, verses 3 and 4 tells us that the high priest would have to make sacrifice for his own sin because he was a sinner.
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But then the high priest would take off the elaborate robes that he wore, if you recall.
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The high priest actually had these really lavish garments, including this breastplate that had stones for each of the tribes of Israel.
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And for the Day of Atonement, though, he would have to take those off.
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And he would have to just put on a plain linen robe.
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It was a regular old thing.
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He would actually look no different than any of the other priests, even though he was the high priest.
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He's just dressed like a regular guy.
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Look at verse 7.
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It says, "Then he, the high priest, shall take the two goats and set them before the Lord at the entrance of the tent of meeting." That's the tabernacle.
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"And Aaron shall cast lots over the two goats." Casting lots was like rolling dice.
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It was something that the Lord used in Old Testament times all the way up until the coming of the Holy Spirit.
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I talked about that earlier in Acts.
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One lot for the Lord, and the other lot for Azazel.
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You're like, well, who's that?
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That was the name of a place in the wilderness, some scholars think, that was about 12 miles east of Jerusalem.
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But the name of the place isn't what's important.
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You see, Azazel referred to the scapegoats.
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There's two goats.
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is going to be killed and one, the scapegoat, Azazel, is going to be released.
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Verse 9, "And Aaron shall present the goat on which the law fell for the Lord and use it as a sin offering." He was going to be killed.
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Verse 10, "But the goat on which the law fell for Azazel shall be presented alive before for the Lord to make atonement over it, that it may be sent away into the wilderness to Azazel." Alright? So there were two goats.
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Again, one killed, and then the priest would lay hands on the other goat to symbolize putting Israel's sin on the animal.
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It was a symbol.
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And then that goat would be released, to be heard from again and it was a picture to the Israelites of sin being removed from the camp. Okay, you with me? Look at verse 15, jump down there with me. "Then he shall kill the goat of the sin offering that is for the people and bring its blood inside the veil and do with its blood as he did with the blood of the bull, sprinkling it over the mercy seat and in front of the mercy seat.
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Okay, the bull, that's referring to the sacrifice he made for himself.
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The mercy seat was the top of the Ark of the Covenant.
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Thus he shall make atonement for the holy place because of the uncleanness of the people of Israel, because of their transgressions, all their sins.
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And so he shall do for the tent of meeting, which dwells with them in the midst of their uncleanness.
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He went down to verse 20.
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"And when he has made an end of atoning for the holy place and the tent of meeting and the altar, he shall present the live goat.
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And Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat and confess over all the iniquities of the people of Israel and all their transgressions, all their sins, and he shall put them on the head of the goat and send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a man who is in readiness.
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The goat shall bear all their iniquities and he shall let the goat go free in the wilderness.
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Continuing on, "Then Aaron shall come into the tent of beating," look at this, "and shall take off the linen garments that he put on when he went into the holy place, and shall leave them there.
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He shall bathe his body in water in a holy place and put on his garments," those are the high priest robes, the breastplate, the stones, the whole nine.
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And come out and offer his burnt offering and the burnt offering of the people and make atonement for himself and for the people.
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Stop there.
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Just to recap, the high priest takes off his elaborate robes and he dresses like a regular guy.
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And then he offers a blood sacrifice behind the veil.
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By the way, as the high priest, he's the only one that can do it.
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And after he's done, he puts his ornate robes back on.
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Does any of that sound familiar?
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Because you see, God was painting this picture.
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What did Jesus Christ do?
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In the same way, The high priest took off those elaborate, glorious robes.
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Jesus took off His glory.
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He humbled Himself by taking off that glorious divinity that He shared with His Father.
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And I'm not saying Jesus became less than God.
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I'm not saying that at all.
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But Jesus did fully become a regular human being.
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What I mean by regular is this.
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there was nothing about Jesus that made him stand out in a crowd.
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Nothing.
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How do you know that?
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Because when Judas betrayed Jesus, he had to go kiss Jesus so that the guards would know which was the right guy, because Jesus looked just like all of the other Jewish men.
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And the Bible says there's nothing about Jesus' appearance that would have drawn people to him.
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He just looked like a regular guy.
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So in that sense, holy God still, yes, but in that sense, Jesus took off the robes of the glory, become a regular flesh and blood man, then made a blood sacrifice, Then, took our sin away, and after resurrecting, what did Jesus do?
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He went back to heaven, and he put his robes back on.
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Jesus didn't just go behind the veil like the high priest did.
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You recall, the Bible says that when Jesus died, that veil was torn.
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He didn't just go behind it, He ripped it down.
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Meaning that now you and I have full access to God.
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God isn't behind the veil any longer because of Jesus Christ.
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We can approach God.
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So you see in this picture in Leviticus, Jesus is the High Priest.
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And Jesus is the sacrifice.
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Jesus is a Zazel. He's the scapegoat. He's the one who takes the sin away.
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The one who stripped glory, became regular, put the glory back on.
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And if that's not mind-blowing enough, these events, the crucifixion, the resurrection, happened during a very special holiday for the Israelites.
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That was Passover.
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It was funny, my wife Erin was telling me this morning, she said, "Yeah, I saw in the news that this news reporter was like totally fascinated, like, 'Wow, wasn't this interesting?
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Christians have Easter and Jews have Passover, and it's like around the same time.'" Wow, does that happen every year?
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But Jesus offered the sacrifice on Passover, and why was that significant?
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Well, Passover was a holiday, a remembrance, where Israel celebrated the exodus out of Egypt.
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And the Lord had the Israelites in Egypt cover their door frames in the blood of a spotless lamb, so that when the Lord came through the camp, if you were covered under the blood of a spotless lamb, you would be saved from death.
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Does that sound familiar at all?
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If you're covered under the blood of the lamb, the spotless Lamb, you will be saved from death.
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So you see, Jesus' death and resurrection were really not like something out of left field.
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It was something that was planned and pictured in the Old Testament, in the Passover and in the Day of Atonement.
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God's holiness demanded bloodshed and death for sin.
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God's love, let Jesus take our place.
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That's why when I see the cross, I think of that cross very literally, graphically, I think of that cross like an intersection where God's holiness and His love intersect.
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Because in Jesus, God's wrath was satisfied.
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God's not mad at you for your sin anymore.
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When you received Jesus Christ, His wrath was satisfied.
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And also that intersection is love.
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It was love that motivated God to take our place on the cross.
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So as we close, here's the big question.
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What should I do about Jesus?
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We said, "What did Jesus do for me?" Here's a question, what should I do about Jesus?
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The message of the cross, the message of the empty tomb, the message of He is alive.
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This isn't just FYI.
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You see, you don't come here like, "Jesus died and rose from the dead.
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"Just thought you should know, enjoy your ham." Like what?
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You have to do something with the message because according to Jesus, He's the only way of salvation.
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Jesus said in John 14, 6, "I am the way, the truth, and the life.
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No one comes to the Father except through Me." Why is that?
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Because no one else paid the penalty for your sin.
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No one else can put life back in you.
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No one can do that.
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Not Joseph Smith, not Charles Taze Russell, not the Buddha, not Muhammad.
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Nobody is able to do that except Jesus Christ, the God-man, the High Priest and the Sacrifice.
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He's the only one.
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You have to do something with it.
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What should I do?
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Here it is, A, B, C, D. Drop these down.
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A, B, C, D.
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Letter A, first of all, you've got to get to this place.
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Admit you are a sinner.
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You have to get there.
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Admit you are a sinner.
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That's what we talked about last week, isn't it?
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That was the purpose of the law.
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The law was to break us.
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The law wasn't to give us a pep talk, where God's like, "You're not that bad." The law was to show us we are horrible people.
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We are rebellious against the Holy God.
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You have to start there.
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You have to start there to say, "You know what?
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"I really am.
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"I am a self-centered, wicked person." Admit you are a sinner.
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Let it be believed Jesus died on the cross and rose from the dead for you.
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You have to personalize the message, because God did.
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This wasn't some event from some Jewish guy across the pond 2,000 years ago that's sort of detached historically and geographically from where we are.
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He did that for me.
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You have to say that, he did that for me.
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Believe Jesus died on the cross and rose from the dead for you.
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letter C, confess Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. In other words, personally receive the gifts. You do that through prayer. I'm going to lead you in a prayer here in just a moment. One of the ways we respond to that is through baptism. Now baptism doesn't save you. Baptism is an outward demonstration of what God has done in here.
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Baptism, just like Leviticus 16, the picture day of atonement of the ministry of the Messiah, baptism also is a picture.
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You're saying, "I'm dead.
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I'm dead." Coming up out of the water is like coming out of your liquid tomb.
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You're saying, "I'm alive in Christ.
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Jesus Christ has risen me from the dead." You do have to confess Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.
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In letter D, daily follow Jesus Christ.
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There's not a list of rules.
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Do this, don't do that.
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It's about a love relationship.
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You want to follow.
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You want to humble yourself before this God who loved you so much.
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Jesus didn't just die to be your Savior.
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The song goes, "He lives to be my King." If you truly receive Him, truly receive Him, He will transform you and His Holy Spirit will come and reside in you.
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And that is the law written on your heart that God promised.
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I want you to bow your heads with me.
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Bow your heads.
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While you do, I just want to ask, Is there someone here today who maybe is understanding this for the first time?
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Is there someone here today who heard and knew the message to some degree, but has never really taken the step to make it their own?
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My question for you this morning is this, can you just walk away from so gracious a gift?
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Can you ignore the love that God has demonstrated in His Son?
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Or can today be a new day for you?
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I am done with sin.
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I am done trying to figure out life on my own.
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I am done carrying guilt and regrets.
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I'm done.
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Jesus Christ died to take away my sin, so that God would remember my sin no more.
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I'm done dealing with the shame of it.
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If that's you, I'm going to lead you in a prayer.
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A prayer that you need to personalize.
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to accept Jesus Christ, which you never have before.
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If you haven't done it, I would encourage you to pray something like this.
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To pray, "Father, I realize that I'm a sinner, and I might have fooled other people, and I might fool myself sometimes, but I know deep down, I am seriously flawed.
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Deep down, I am seriously self-centered.
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Father, I believe the truth of your Word, that you love me.
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And you sent your Son, Jesus Christ, you came here personally to die on that cross and to raise from the dead.
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To forgive me of all the wrong things that I've done.
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You put it all on Jesus.
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And You've restored eternal life into me, Father.
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And today, Father, I want to confess Jesus Christ as my Savior and Lord.
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I'm done playing games.
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I'm done just thinking about it, or putting it off another week, or another month, or until I'm worn out with this particular sin, or whatever.
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Today, I want to confess Christ as my Savior and Lord.
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Father, I know that your Word says your Holy Spirit is going to empower me to follow you, to be the person that you've called me to be, to be the person that you want me to be in your Son, to conform me into the image of your Son.
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You'll give me the power to do that.
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And I want that to be a daily decision.
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And I'm going to seek your face.
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I'm not gonna ask you to raise your hand, or to stand up or walk down front, anything like that.
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'Cause here's the thing, this is between you and God.
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And if you've prayed a prayer like that today, in your own words, that you've personalized this, And it was a genuine and true prayer from your heart that you are a born again child of God.
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And Father, as I pray on behalf of this congregation here, there are many people here who know you.
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And there are some who don't.
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But I pray for all of us, Father.
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When we take a fresh look at the significance of this event, some of us will spend hours preparing for a picnic.
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When you spent thousands of years of history preparing the world through the nation of Israel for this event, the crucifixion and the resurrection of Jesus Christ, You've pictured it throughout Your Word.
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You've prepared us through things like the Passover, through things like the Day of Atonement, all of the prophecies concerning the Messiah.
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You've prepared us globally through the Israelites.
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The event has come, and it has happened exactly as You said.
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And I pray, Father, today, like those first century disciples. I pray that it continues in this church, in every other church in the Pittsburgh area, in every church in the Harvest Bible Fellowship. I pray that the impact is as fresh and world-shaking today as it was back then. By your power, Let it be.
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In the glorious name of your Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, Amen.
Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Jeremiah 31:31-34
What does "Christ" mean? Why is this word associated with Jesus?
Read Jeremiah 31:31-34. What are the differences between the Old Covenant and the
New Covenant?List a few examples of Old Testament prophecies about Jesus. Why are the OT
prophecies important?Why was it necessary for Christ to suffer, die, and resurrect for my sins? Why didn't He
just say, "I forgive you."?
Breakout Questions:
Have you understood Who Jesus is and what He calls us to? Have you been an active, growing follower of Jesus? Do you feel equipped to be able to tell someone else about Jesus?