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| Although the Easter Holiday has become filled with pastels and little cute bunnies the image above displays the real truth behind what happened in history on Good Friday. |
The Easter story is a story we all know. Christ was betrayed,
beaten, mocked, humiliated and finally crucified; all in front of his
followers, his close friends, and even his family. Three days later, He emerges from His grave
free from deaths grip. He has risen!
It is the single most important moment in our faith. It
separates the Christian faith from all the other faiths that are or have been
in the world. We worship a RISEN Lord. He is alive. All the other faiths
are…..well… are based on dead guys. But that is another topic for another day. Today let us focus
on two main points in this story.
The Battle and The Victory.
This battle was not fantasy
If you have read the
account of Christ’s death maybe you missed the battle. That is OK, I did, and
even those who were there did. You can read it again in Mathew 27: 45-53 by
clicking here: https://www.youversion.com/bible/111/mat.27.niv
Those who were watching must have been devastated and
confused at His death. After all, they believed that He was the Messiah. The Messiah
whom the bible foretold, that was going to come and free the Jews. Of course, they
expected freedom from the tyrannical reign of the Roman Empire. The fight
that was coming, in their eyes, was going to be a physical battle. It didn’t
turn out that way did it? I wonder what they thought when Christ died….seemingly
without a fight.
If you were there what would have heard? Maybe it would have
sounded something like this.
“What? He is dead?
The Messiah was going to free us! He did not even fight his persecutors. He
didn’t even argue with them. Did he speak up for his innocence? Did he fight for his own freedom? Nope, he never argued; no, instead He prayed for them
asking God to forgive them. I cannot believe it is over, I cannot believe we
lost, I cannot believe we lost this way. There was no fight. There was no
battle. He just gave up on us. Oh no, what do we do now?”
Being crushed by the seeming finality of the defeat they did
what most of us would have done. They all ran from the scene, they went home to
lick their wounds and hide from what was the most devastating blow to their
faith. Their messiah failed. They must have been questioning everything they
had learned in those three years of his ministry.
Hold on though, hold the phone, not so fast.
They didn’t recognize the battle, it was only reaching its climax as Christ
was drawing closer to giving up His life. Let us take a look at three events
that occurred as Christ hung on the cross between those two thieves.
2. Christ cries out in a loud voice
3. The Earthquake
1) The eclipse - there was darkness that came over all the land mentioned
in verse 45 was first prophesied hundreds of years before.
Isaiah in 50:10 Who among you fears the LORD
and obeys the word of his servant? Let him who walks in the dark, who has no
light, trust in the name of the LORD and rely on his God.
Matthew’s Commentary has this to say
about the eclipse.
"When earth denied him a drop of cold water, heaven denied him
a beam of light; having to deliver us from utter darkness, he did
himself, in the depth of his sufferings, walk in darkness, and had no light. During
the three hours that this darkness continued, we do not find that he
said one word, but passed this time in a silent retirement into his own
soul, which was now in agony, wrestling with the powers of darkness, and taking
in the impressions of his Father’s displeasure, not against himself, but the
sin of man, which he was now making his soul an offering for."
Christ, who came to free the captives (us), had to free them
from someone right? While the Jews of the time believed that this freedom would be
from the Romans, Christ was really freeing us from Satan. He was the force of evil that held the keys and he was not alone. Remember he took 1/3 of the Angels with him when he fell to earth. Paul referred to them
in Ephesians 6:12 as…… the rulers, against the authorities,
against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil
in the heavenly realms.
In this 3-hour period Christ does not
speak. Not even a word. It could be that there was a fierce battle being
fought, being fought in the darkness. God may have darkened the world to make
for a more illustrious battle by giving Satan the opportunity to fight on his own turf. In essence,
God could have given Satan the home field advantage so he could be even more than
the conqueror.
2) Christ cries out in a load voice - just before He does give up his
last breath Christ “cries out in a loud voice” (v.46) "My God, My God why have
you forsaken me"? This, while a cry from Jesus, about His suffering from bearing
our sins was also more than that. By this point He was beaten brutally and fatigued
from hanging on the cross. Most men, when they are on deaths door do not
have the kind of energy or even the physical capability to speak. Let alone cry
out in a loud voice. Is it possible that this was a WAR CRY? Meant to send us
and Satan a message that Christ was still yet full of strength and that His
life in him now was still fully whole. Demonstrating that Christ was fully giving
up His life on his own accord.
3) The earthquake. So powerful and violent that it tore the curtain/veil in
the temple, it split rocks in half, and it broke open the tombs of many of the
holy people. This must have been one mighty blow to the powers of evil. Could it
have been the final blow that put Satan down for the count? A hit so hard even
the rocks, one of the hardest things on the planet actually split in two.
These three events fill me with excitement
about how the battle with Satan was a foot. When Christ was dying on the cross
in the flesh, He was fully engaged in battle in the spiritual realm. The whole
time he was fully in control and doing everything just as predicted hundreds of
years before. He was the ultimate underdog in the eyes of His people. They just
didn’t know it yet. Perhaps the most interesting and incredible part of this
battle came in the time from His death to the time of His resurrection.
There are not any specific verses in the
bible that tells us what happened in that period so we have to speculate. This
has lead to a lot of speculation among scholars. You will need to research that
on your own, diving a little deeper, and coming up with your own opinion. Let
me leave you though, with a piece of scripture that may hold a clue or a reference.
1st Peter 3:18-20
18For Christ
also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to
God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit. 19After being
made alive, he went and made proclamation to the imprisoned spirits— 20to those who
were disobedient long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while
the ark was being built…….
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I think he went to Hell and took the keys off that defeated warden and I praise Him for that.
It is in Him that we have the victory! Thank you Lord Jesus for fighting for my life, despite the fact that I am sinner.
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The Victory:
Christ’s death and resurrection can be summed up in one
word:
FREEDOM!
Webster defines freedom as the quality or state of being
free: as the absence of necessity, coercion, or constraint in choice or action.
Christ died and rose again so we are no longer constrained
in our choice or action.
To put this into perspective let us take a quick moment and
look at how people were “forgiven for their sins” before Jesus was crucified. Prior
to His sacrifice, the Jewish people had to atone for their sins through the act
of animal sacrifice. It happened on the Passover and many times throughout the
year.
In particular, one day of the year was set aside. The Day of
Atonement established by God and described in Leviticus Chapter 16; was a
national holiday for the Jewish people and was not a celebration but rather a
day of repentance. God tells Moses that if Aaron enters the room behind the
curtain or veil whenever he wants he will die! He then proceeded to give
him a list of requirements to meet before he does. No one, other than the high
priest (Aaron) could enter the room behind the curtain/veil and only he could do it once a year. The people of the
Old Testament did not have direct access to God. They were constrained, almost
to the point of death.
Lev
16:2 The Lord said to Moses: “Tell your brother Aaron that he is not to come
whenever he chooses into the Most Holy Place behind the curtain in front of the
atonement cover on the ark, or else he will die. For I will appear in the cloud
over the atonement cover.
The curtain used in the tabernacle was not what we typically
think of when we think of a curtain. It was massive and acted as a divider or a
shield between the holiness of God and sinful man. The curtain was over 6o feet
tall and 30 feet wide and was an astonishing three to four inches thick.
Luke 23:45…and the
curtain of the temple was torn in two.
When Christ died that huge massive
curtain which was meant to separate us from God was torn from top to bottom. It
was ripped from above. His death gave us access direct access to God!
This is a very exciting time of year for us! Christ’s work on
the cross freed us from our bondage, freed us from the limitations and constraints
that had existed before His coming. It is worth mentioning again! His death
tore the curtain from the ceiling to the floor thus removing the separation
between God and us. We can now approach God on His throne. We don’t have to
sleek up to the throne in a timid way, with our tail between our legs. No. We
can approach God boldly and with confidence.
Through this act, through this ultimate sacrifice God is
sending us in invitation to come to Him.
He loves you. He wants to be in relationship with you. You
don’t have to clean up, you don’t have to wear special clothes, you don’t even
have to “get it right” before you come. He accepts you where you are right now.
Broken. Messy. Hurt. Abandoned. Angry.
Friends, He does not care how you come to Him. He loves you.
He will meet you wherever you are. He is knocking. Can you hear Him? Let Him
in.
Now do not think He will leave you there. He loves you WAY
TOO MUCH for that. He will want to heal you, He will want change you, and He
will ask you to do tough things. He wants to transform you. To make you WHOLE
again. He wants to help you find your heart, please let Him. Answer the door,
it just might change your life.
Most importantly, and what moves me the most about
our Lord is He will FAITHFULLY LOVE YOU. He does not give up on you, He never leaves
you, He never turns from you, and He never, ever, ever, stops loving you. Even
when you fail, even when you fall short and make mistakes, even when the whole
world seems to have turned their back on you He is there friend.
If you want to dig even deeper I have listed several bible verses
below for you to read. I pray that God opens your heart and reveals Himself to
you as you read more about Him and His love for YOU! You can check out these
versus on His faithfulness and His promises to you.
Check them out in your bible or online at www.youversion.com If you don’t own a bible and want one let us
know. We can get you a free copy.
God’s Faithfulness to you
Deuteronomy 7:9
1 Corinthians 1:9
Matthew 24:35
Psalm 33:4
Psalm 86:15
John 16:33
1 John 1:9
Romans 5:1-5
1 Thessalonians 5:23
Proverbs 18:24
Hebrews 12:1-2
Malachi 3:17
God’s Promises to you
Jeremiah 29:11
Matthew 11:28-29
Isaiah 40:29-31
Philippians 4:19
Romans 8:37-39
John 14:27
Romans 10:9
Romans 6:23
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