Understanding Why Jesus Had to Die

Speaker 1 0:30

Hey , good to be with you . My name is Larry . I'm one of the passers here . If you're with us online , good to have you . I just want to let you know , at the end of our service today , we're going to participate in communion together . I'll explain that a little bit later , but just so you're prepared and then maybe also you are joining us , just taking a peek through the window , we'd love to give you an invitation just into this space , this group of people in person , and we have a ton of stuff coming up , especially in this Easter season just over the next two weeks . So you got a little bundle of stuff and if you want to look in there , it's got a lot of the things that are coming up that would be great for you to participate in and just a way for us all to connect together . You can get information online on our website as well . So I'm going to hop in . We're going to have to bat . We've got a lot to cover . We're only doing three verses today and we're going to cover a lot of stuff .

Speaker 1 1:22

We have been walking through the book of Matthew . This is the first book of the New Testament written by a disciple named Matthew . That chronicles the life of Jesus , what he was like , what God's like , who he likes , what he thinks , how he thinks . And we get to verse by verse . We've been going through this . We started in chapter one . Today we're continuing in chapter 20 . And we've just been methodically going verse by verse and just unpacking that . And what is this first century literature to these disciples , as disciples ourselves in the 21st century , what this means to us , or potential disciples of who is God and who is this Jesus , and what is this story or kingdom ethic that we're learning about . So we're in chapter 20 . We're going to jump right back in Verse 17, . If you want to turn on your Bibles , if you got like a Bible app , you can get those for free . You version Maybe you brought one . I'm going to throw the verses up on the screen for today , so hop it in Matthew 20 , verse 17 through 19 .

Speaker 1 2:25

Now Jesus was going up to Jerusalem . On the way , he took the 12 aside these are his disciples and said to them we're going up to Jerusalem and the Son of man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the teachers of the law . They will condemn him to death and they will hand him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified and on the third day he will be raised to life . So , for those of you who have not been on this journey with us through Matthew , this is actually the third time Jesus predicts and is telling his disciples and there's something about freeze and understanding the repetiveness in scripture it's telling us like , hey , this is a thing , it's an important thing to note and to pay attention to . So this is the third time that he's done this and I thought for this week , rather than going through and saying , ok , again , where's Jerusalem ? What's this road journey look like ? There's a way over to Passover which we're close to , and it's like we can explain some of that . We can explain who the chief priests and the teachers were , or Gentiles , or what crucifixion looks like and why .

Speaker 1 3:27

And then this big elaborate idea and claim of you know , on the third day he will be risen to life . And instead of doing that today , I thought I would just get back to the really simple yet complicated question that I think a lot of us think about and avoid thinking about because it's just kind of big and disconnected of why did Jesus have to die ? Like when we think about that from the very beginning of like OK , like we've even heard that term like Jesus died for the forgiveness of your sins and you're like I've never heard of anyone else having to die , like that's a lot , like it's really grand and expressive . So why did Jesus have to die ? So here we're going to try to cover the whole narrative in 30 minutes , so buckle up and hang on with me .

Speaker 1 4:15

So we exist in a world that was brilliantly and creatively brought forth in love from a creator , god , god the creator . And that God wants to share the beauty of existence with creatures , and humans have this unique role in it . That God has actually appointed humans as the crowned species to manage and oversee this good world under his care . And so that's where this whole thing started . And then the question is so what have we done with this place ? We were appointed as stewards and managers and overseers of this good world , and we have become vandals . Through our choices , our behavior , we end up defacing it and then introducing ruin into God's good world , ruining ourselves , ruining other people .

Speaker 1 5:08

And what this word sin is all about , this idea of sin , we've got different attachments to it . It's this human condition that somehow , it's somehow that there's something going on inside of me and inside of you and individually . There's something that then gets magnified collectively , where we just hurt each other , where we treat each other with contempt and we treat each other with inappropriately , we violate each other's dignity as image bearers , as images of God , and we redefine then like right and wrong , we declare independence from God and we don't want to submit to his wisdom and his holiness , and so we end up ultimately in a world that looks like the world we live in right now . So then you can go like OK , so you're saying that's attached to sin . Well , what is sin ? Let me define it for you . Sin is the failure . It's a failure rather than simply breaking of rules . It's the failure to be genuinely human .

Speaker 1 6:11

The Greek word which is written for us ha-mar-tema . It means sin , which literally means the definition of pulling in the back and arrow and shooting at a bull's eye , and you're missing the mark . Your intent is to hit the bull's eye . You miss the bull's eye in perfection , and so you're ultimately then sin is missing the target . And so what's the target ? The target is genuine humanness .

Speaker 1 6:38

What is genuine humanness ? It's reflecting God's image , and whatever sin is , and what's actually going on is that there's something that we're supposed to be doing and being to honor God in our world , in our family , in our own lives , and sin . What it does is it draws us away from that and it presents us with this cheap alternative , so that we then collude with the forces of destruction and chaos and darkness through ultimately giving our human authority over to idols and other things that we then begin to worship . And so this question is what is God ? What is His response to a world like ours To sin ? What's God doing about the evil and the sin that we all participate in and choose and perpetuate on a database basis , like individually and even then collectively ?

Speaker 1 7:37

Well , it's this big , gigantic word that most of us don't use at all but we read about , called atonement . This is actually one of the most important words in the Christian vocabulary or in theology , and the New Testament writers are reflecting on their understanding of this word . In fact , the disciple John , who wrote the Gospel of John , he actually wrote what are called letters , but they're really small sermons . They're some of our first sermons , and if you flip all the way to the back of the Bible , almost to the end , you'll see a sermon called First John and it's this short letter that people call it . But this sermon that gives us this message and kind of encapsulates , I think , what we wanna connect to today .

Speaker 1 8:22

So I'm gonna read from First John . I'm gonna start in verse five . He says this is a message that we have heard from Him , jesus , and I declare to you God is light , in Him . There is no darkness at all . If we claim to have fellowship with Him and yet walk in darkness , we lie and we do not live out the truth . But if we walk in the light , as he is in the light , we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus , his Son , purifies us from all sin . If we claim to be without sin , we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us . If we confess our sins , he is faithful and just and he will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness . And if we claim we have not sinned , we make Him out to be a liar and His word is not in us . That's the end of chapter one . If you flip it's really continual into chapter two , chapter two starts with so , my dear children , I write this to you so you will not sin . But if anybody does sin , because he knows who we are . But if you do , we have an advocate with the Father , jesus Christ , the righteous one . He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins , and not only for ours , but also for the sins of the entire world . Now , if we really grasp that statement , if we really grasp what he's explained to us right now , for most of us the only response is wow , wow .

Speaker 1 10:15

What we see here is three times repeated , something about the effect of Jesus' death . Let me point him out to you . In verse seven , chapter one , verse seven , he says the blood of Jesus purifies us from all sin . Then he says in verse nine , chapter one , he says he will forgive us and purify us from all sin . And then in chapter two , verse two , he says Jesus Christ is the atoning sacrifice for our sins .

Speaker 1 10:43

So , first of all , he said there's this thing called sin , it's the vandalism that we introduce into God's good world . And what does Jesus then do about that ? Well , first we see that his blood , the blood of Jesus , purifies us , and the blood is this metaphor for Jesus' death , this execution on a cross that purifies us from our sin . And then he says it again later , except he adds another word to it . The purification is then connected with forgiveness , and the death of Jesus provides this means of forgiveness and this forgiveness then purifies us .

Speaker 1 11:18

And then the crowning statement in this paragraph the death of Jesus , by which we are forgiven , is the atoning sacrifice for our sins . And he wants to make it really clear here that you and I have introduced a whole lot of garbage into this world . In fact he says if you deny that , like you think that you're not a deeply flawed human who keeps acting out of those flaws , you are living in a state of denial . So let's just all own up to the ways that we hurt each other out of our flaws . And so what is God doing about that ? What is he actually doing about this ? Well , apparently God wants to forgive and purify by the means of Jesus and his atoning sacrifice .

Speaker 1 12:02

So let's just talk about a couple of these words for just a minute . So purify most of you , you know we kind of get it . It's like what you do to a wound , you know you make it sanitary . So maybe you purify or purity , or the word pure , I think for most of us fits pretty well into our vocabulary and our understanding . But there's this word here . That's really important atonement , atonement no one uses this word . I can't tell you the last time I heard someone using the word atonement in the midst of a conversation as like a regular bit of their vocabulary or their vernacular . So it's important for us to understand .

Speaker 1 12:37

What , then , does this mean ? What does the word atone or atonement mean ? Well , if you take it and you blow it out in the olden jurisdiction , it gives us a clear definition . It's at one meant to make right to atone or atonement is at one meant to reconcile , and what this English word means for us , in our understanding , is that you have two people , you have , like two parties that are odds with each other , and there's been some kind of wrong that's been done . One person has vandalized another person's property or life in some way , and there's been this wrongdoing , and so now there's this mess , there's a conflict , right ? This tension in this relationship , and what our English word atonement refers to is the means or the way that the damage or harm is actually dealt with so that the two can be made at one meant . It's about relational repair and reconciliation between two people who are suffering from something that one person has done to the other .

Speaker 1 13:36

But as we understand that in our English language , we need to ask this question was the Bible written in English ? No , the answer to that question , by the way , is no . So you have this English word , which we understand of at one meant atonement , to make right and to reconcile . But what was happening was is these writers , these writers that were writing in Greek , they're grabbing a word that they understood from the Old Testament , this word in Hebrew , which was kippare , kippare , and they're trying to say how do I encapsulate all of what kippare means into now what we get as atonement , this word atonement in Greek , which is helosimus . And so you have atonement , trying to like figure out what kippare is and ultimately its meanings . And you have to understand that the first three quarters of the Old Testament were mostly in Hebrew . This is what it was written in a little bit of Aramaic in there In the New Testament , which was written by Hebrew people , jewish people , in the language of their day . They were part of the Roman Empire , which was Greek , and so the vocabulary that the biblical authors use , it gets translated out of atonement

Covering the Cost of Atonement

Speaker 1 14:50

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Speaker 1 14:51

So atonement is a good translation , that with the way we are understanding in our English version , but it doesn't get us quite all the way there . It really , its meaning actually is connected to the word cover cover . If we look at that , something's going on with the English word for us , cover . That hits us in the way that I think the biblical concept atonement is to cover for someone else's failure . This concept of covering someone or erasing or taking responsibility for the consequences of wrongdoing , or covering a debt you know that term of I've got you covered . But it does actually more than that . Covering can also be this image that's connected with purifying or restoring or repairing .

Speaker 1 15:41

So let me give you a quick illustration . Let's say we go to lunch and it's a great lunch . We invite you , we're like hey , let's go to lunch , we have a nice meal , and the check comes at the end of our lunch and because I invited you , you probably assumed I was going to pay . So you took us to somewhere that was a little nicer than you normally would go to , like in and out or something like that , I don't know . And it comes in , we're sitting there this wouldn't have an end up , but anyways , we're sitting somewhere on . The server would come up and they come with a check and all of a sudden I realized , oh my gosh , I'm totally absent minded . I was like in a rush and I forgot my phone . So I don't have my debit card on me . I don't have my Apple Pay Like I have no way . I am so sorry . Like I don't have any cash on me , I don't know what to do . I'm really sorry I forgot . And so the question is then have I failed ? Yes , it's not the worst failure that I could have committed in the day , but have I failed to be able to participate in something I said I was going to participate in ? Yes , I failed to remember to bring money to pay for the food that I was just going to have .

Speaker 1 16:42

So now you could be a very nice person and you could not say what you're really thinking like , what an idiot , right . Like , oh , geez , get organized . Or like , figure your life out , all the things that you're probably thinking , and you're smiling , yeah , right . Or you could be gracious and you could be like oh , I know , I forget , it's okay , it's okay , I forget stuff too . I totally , I've done this before . I forgive you . You know we all do this . And you can say , totally fine , I forgive you . But then the server comes and brings the check and then you tell the server oh , my friend Larry , he totally he was absent minded and a lot of stuff going on . He totally spaced this and he forgot all this stuff . But it's okay , I've totally forgiven him . And the server is going to be like , wow , you're a really kind person , but who's going to pay for the check ? Right , like the forgiveness happened . And the server is going to say to you , like , who's going to pay ?

Speaker 1 17:32

So what you understand is that even forgiveness itself is an act that requires absorbing cost . You can say I forgive you , right , this failure that I've produced in the world , this debt that is now outstanding . But it cannot be overlooked . It has to be dealt with in some kind of way . And if you're going to forgive me , you actually have to cover for me , like I'll cover you . You have to absorb the cost of my failure and what it's produced . And the server doesn't care if you like me or not , right , they don't care if I forgot my what . What the server cares about is who's going to cover the cost of this meal .

Speaker 1 18:16

It's atonement , it's covering for someone . Now , atonement , it does even more than that because , let's say , we go to lunch every week for a month . It's great , we've got the standing appointment and I do this every time . What are you going to start to do ? You're going to start to resent me . You're going to be like he really is an idiot or he's just a bore . He just continues to fail Like he's not a good person , he doesn't care about me , he doesn't respect me , he's just mooching everything he can off me . So this is what's important to understand about atonement it both has to cover the hard cost of my failure , but then there also needs to be some sort of resolution of this relational tension , this damage that I am now doing to you because of how I'm treating you .

Speaker 1 19:09

There's also something that needs to be dealt with in the biblical story , in the biblical vocabulary , and that's what Jesus' life , death and resurrection does for the problem of human evil and sin . It deals with the hard cost , it covers the debt , but it does more . It actually restores damaged relationship . It restores the damaged relationship . And so what's going on in this concept of atonement ? Where does this like word come from right ? They grabbed it from somewhere . This is not foreign to them , this idea in which they're trying to explain and encapsulate everything that Jesus is and what this means . Well , it comes from the fact that Jesus and the apostles were Jewish and they were part of the history and the story of the Israelite people In this world . Helosmos , which they're translating in their heads in Greek as Greek speakers , is coming from this Hebrew word of kippur . Has this really significant history and storyline of Israel and the Bible , and it all has to do with this space . This space right here has to do with the meaning and significant of this space and the story of the people of Israel , and so now I need to figure out how to get you there . So I'm going to now take you on a journey in the next three to four minutes to try to cover the entire Old Testament . Here we go .

Speaker 1 20:36

So God wants to deal , wants to deal and respond to the evil and the sin that is in the world , and God's first long-term response comes in Genesis , chapter 12 . And he chooses a family . In fact , he chooses a person , abraham , and through him he's going to restore , and his family restore , blessing and salvation and redemption to all the nations of the world . And so this family grows over time and becomes like a people group , becomes a nation that ultimately ends up in slavery down in Egypt and things are not good there . And so what God does is he confronts this evil . He shows up and this collective , corporate evil of Egypt , kind of all wrapped up in this guy named Pharaoh right , this Pharaoh of the time and he defeats it and then , as people go free out into the wilderness , and then God brings them all to the foot of a mountain , mount Sinai

God's Covenant With His People

Speaker 1 21:29

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Speaker 1 21:30

And there's two key things that happen right now . First of all , god enters into a covenant relationship with the whole nation . He said , hey , what I said I was going to do through Abraham blessing and redemption to all the nations I'm now going to do through you all . This is the group still , you're my people . You're going to be a kingdom of priests . You're going to be a people that are set apart , who are going to reflect , as a nation , god's character and it's justice and mercy to all the other nations and how you live as a contrast community with one another .

Speaker 1 22:05

And then the second thing that God says is he's going to come , he's going to live in the midst . He says I'm going to embody this physical symbol of a space that you're looking at right here . It's called the tabernacle in English , this was a whole ritual , symbolic space that spoke about the story of God and what God wanted to do through these people for the whole world . And in this space you can see right here you have this large courtyard area you can see like slaughter tables , you can see the altar kind of the middle of the courtyard and then as you go into this tent area there's all these symbols that made sense to them . Like in this first room and area you were in a space of the incense and then you were into another one where you can see there's a tree looking thing it's called menorah , which was actually to represent the tree of life , and eventually you even see in here there's all kinds of symbolism that are connected back to the Garden of Eden and God's original connection and oneness with his creation as image bearers . And then there's , like this box , and it's the presence of God is symbolized by smoke and cloud that hovered over this golden box , and this was about the gift of God's presence .

Speaker 1 23:18

God wanted to live in the midst of the kingdom of priests , the people that he loved , the people that he rescued , and he wanted to make them into a beacon for all , for all nations , and God had asked people to live a different set of standards , and the first one was actually how they're gonna relate to him , how they're gonna relate to this God . Now , almost all of Israel's neighbors represented their gods by statues , and he said don't do that . Like the God of Israel said don't do that , because what you're doing is you're reducing who God is into something that you have made , that you can create yourself . So don't do that . Don't give your allegiance to any other gods . I'm the one who rescued you and I love you . Follow me and don't represent me with idols and statues . And so they get the blueprints for making this , the making of this tent , and what's the first thing that people of Israel do ? At the foot of this mountain , right there , they represent God with a statue and they begin to give their allegiance to other gods .

Speaker 1 24:21

It's called the golden calf , the story of the golden calf , and the story is actually telling us something , and it's telling us something about us . It's telling us that there's this human nature in us that , even when God reveals his own self to us in a pure and real and tangible form , that there's something that is so broken inside of us that we continue to declare independence from God and refuse to submit to God's wisdom and even to his mercy . And the story it forces you to ask a question . If you were God , what would you do with these people that just did this ? You rescued them , you've just thrown it back in your face . What would you do ? I mean , really , that question is does God have every right to walk out on these people and just leave the relationship ? Yeah , do you have every right to walk out of the restaurant ? Leave me hanging with a bill because I produced that failure , especially the fourth time it happened . Yeah , you do . You have every right to leave me there in that mess that I've made for myself . But that is exactly exactly what God doesn't do .

Meaning of Atonement Through Rituals

Speaker 1 25:40

What God does , after this story of the golden calf , is provide Israel with this elaborate set of rituals that they're to perform in this space . And these symbols communicate two key things One , they tell Israel something about their sin . Tell them about their sin . And two , it tells them something about God . So what is the rituals and the symbol connected to ? Well , it's something we're very disconnected with in this culture in which we live in , which is killing animals and animal sacrifice .

Speaker 1 26:19

Now , if you read in the book of Leviticus , which is great night reading , and I'll put you right to bed . The first seven chapters are taken up with describing rituals of sacrifice that the Israelites in the priesthood have performed , and there was five different kinds . Two of those were like thank yous . They were to say thank you , like giving back a symbolic token , just a little bit of what God has given you , in a way to say thank you , and this is my first fruits , this is a sacrifice to you and what I've been given . And then there was three types of offerings that you read about in Leviticus as the way of saying I'm sorry .

Speaker 1 26:54

There's these three different types of rituals , but the net effect is that , ultimately , what you had to do is you had to take this animal . You know you cheat your neighbor , you hurt someone , you steal , you don't love your neighbor as yourself . You realize that what you have done is not okay , it's not right for that person . And then you can even take the time and you can be like look at , I'm sorry , you can repay them for that thing that you took or you broke , that they can say back I forgive you , but the server still comes and says now who's going to pay . It's like God of Israel comes and it's like Larry , you're my people , you're supposed to live as priests of the nation and this is how you're gonna behave . You haven't just offended your neighbor , you've offended God .

Speaker 1 27:43

So what you do then is you take this animal and you go and consult with a priest , and here's what I've done , here's what I'm offering , and it's gonna be this whole set of rituals that takes place , but ultimately , what's gonna happen is this animal is going to die . And it's really gruesome because you're part of this process that ultimately , this animal then is gonna have its throat slit in front of you and you're gonna watch this animal's blood being drained and then into a bowl and it's gonna then get cut up like a butcher right there in front of you and part of it's gonna be burned up in the altar . And here's what's really interesting is and this is so disconnected from us to even just encapsulate like imagery that goes along with this is that this bowl of blood that now has been drained and there was different places that the animal's blood would get sprinkled as this atonement , and so they would take it and , depending on , like , if it was just between you and a person . Maybe it was outside in that courtyard area , in the altar area , and it was on the outside of the wall , and literally they would take the blood and they would kind of flick it around to kind of cleanse that space , this atonement . And then if it was like a people , group or a tribe or a larger group , that would go further inside of the area of the incense and it would be thrown around there and then once a year , if it was like against the whole people , the nation , against God , like once a year , the chief priests could go in into that space for God , in the same sort of deal . But if you can picture this , I mean that it would get closer to God , the larger the offense , and ultimately you can just picture what a mess . I mean I can't even imagine the smell of this place , just smell like blood , if you know what that smells like , right , and ultimately what you're realizing is is we are vandalizing God's space by our actions because there has to be this atonement and so it's just bloody everywhere and there's . You know , these priests are literally like butchers . So then we can ask this is awful .

Speaker 1 29:46

This is , of course , like , why the blood ? Like , why is this the symbolism ? Like , what does this mean ? Why is this atoning , sacrifice work ? Like , how does it cover evil ? Well , the key line you find is in Leviticus 17 . That unpacks the symbolism , says this for the life of a creature is in the blood we get . That blood is life and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar . It is the blood that makes atonement for one's life . It is the blood that symbolizes life , that covers your life . It's a life covering for a life . Now let's just pause right there .

Speaker 1 30:35

For some people , this sounds repulsive . Like all the blood , all the mess and what we have done over time is created this story and this narrative that says you have this perfect God , you have this holy God , and you are not . You are not perfect , you have missed the mark , and so God has to kill you . He has to kill you and take his wrath out you . What he needs is his pound of flesh in the name of his justice , and he's gonna kill you because he is angry at you . But instead of killing you , he then decides he's going to kill Jesus and he takes out all of his anger on Jesus and he allows you , after you die to go to the good place and not the bad place , so then you can sing forever the praises of God who didn't kill you .

Speaker 1 31:30

Now , what I just said to you is a total distortion and perversion of God's character and the good news and the meaning of atonement . But some of you are sitting here right now going but wait , isn't that , like , actually the thing ? I guess ? I'm really confused , like that's actually the way I understand it . Look , he reveals his nature all throughout the Old Testament and the New Testament , and that is not true .

Symbolism of Sin and Atonement

Speaker 1 32:08

That little summary right there that I just gave you is the exact opposite of what an Israelite is experienced when they go offer their animal . As they go offer their animal , there is two main things . If you study the Leviticus , that emerges out of this . Remember , I told you just a moment ago that that sacrament , that symbolism , tells us something about our sin . It tells us something about our sin , and then that symbolism tells us something about God that when I vandalize , when I make a decision , when I live as I've all broken and messy , that when I vandalize my neighbor , when I strip them of their dignity as a human who reflects the image of God , and I don't love them as myself , I am introducing death , this animal , into the world . I'm introducing this . It's actually a visual symbol for them to grasp this , for us to grasp this .

Speaker 1 33:06

It says , ultimately , that my moral actions have real consequences at the stakes and the stakes are so high I mean , because they're sitting there participating and watching this take place that the brokenness and the distortion of the human heart that humans we create , death in God's good world and this animal dies to tell us that the stakes are so high , like it has real consequences . My moral choices actually matter and my sin fractures relationships and it's the death of healthy relationships . It ruins myself and it ruins God's good world . The stakes are high . That's what this symbolism of the life in the blood shows us , that a life covers for a life . But the fact that it's covering for my life also tells me it's not just something about my sin , but it tells me , then , something about God .

Speaker 1 34:06

If God in all of us , like disappointment with us , wanted to just walk out on Israel , he could have , but that's not in his nature . That's not what it's telling us about God . And so , for the Israelites , every time you go and you offer this animal , you are reminded that God is not angry with you . It's the exact opposite , that he's actually given me this elaborate symbolism here to sink into an elaborate meaning , like it's kind of like torturous . It's a horrible scene to be a part of , but it's a symbol that I get to sink into my psyche , that the people of Israel and everyone who participated understood , to remind me that he actually loves me and he doesn't want to kill me , because God could just do that . He's gonna say I'm gonna cover you with a life To reconcile and repair that God loves us and he's not gonna give up on us , and that our moral choices have real consequences and the stakes are so high because our failure actually creates death in God's good world , and so he's given us this life to cover my failure and my sin .

Speaker 1 35:13

And so then you fast forward to the story of Jesus and you have John , who we're just talking about , who met Jesus of Nazareth , who's saying that the kingdom of heaven is here and , despite the whole history of human failure and evil and death , that he has come as the new high priest , as the high priest , the messianic king , who's gonna be human , the human actually that you and I are created and called to be but perpetually failed and fail to be . And he is gonna die and absorb unto himself the consequences and the effect of all the evil that you and I have released into this world and participate in . And he's gonna conquer it with his love , with this resurrection life . And this is why . This is why when the apostles used this word throughout the New Testament in scripture , they used the word atonement in the New Testament to talk about Jesus . They don't depict an angry God . They're not saying he had to atone for you because the wrath of God was coming , and so his son Jesus volunteered and said I'll take it and stepped in our place , for them and for us . What we need to grasp and understand for them , when they think of atonement , all they can think of is God's love . We see it actually in 1 John , still as he's wrapping

Celebrating God's Love Through Sacraments

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up .

Speaker 1 36:37

This little sermonette Says dear friends , let us love one another , for love comes from God . Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God . Whoever does not love does not know God , because God is love . This is how God showed his love among us . He sent his one and only son into the world that we might live through him . This is love . Not that we loved God , but he loved us and sent his son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins . Dear friends , since God so loved us , we ought to love one another . No one has ever seen God , but if we love one another , god lives in us and his love is made complete in us .

Speaker 1 37:36

So what is the key word of this paragraph ? Love . You know we're not reading it . Like you know , when the apostle Paul thinks of Jesus as this dying sacrifice to cover for our sin , he believes , it shows us loud and clear that this is a revelation of God's anger , that he hates you and he wants to kill you because you fail . No , do you see how distorted that idea is ? That tradition has passed down to us or we've passed down to ourselves . It's the exact opposite . He loves you , he could walk out on you , but he doesn't because he promised he wouldn't . And the way that that promise fits most beautifully in its fulfillment is God then becoming human to be the human that I could never be for myself , so that I can become the kind of human that I could never become in my own power .

Speaker 1 38:35

It's the revelation of God's love that God would cover for us , and the life and the death and the resurrection of Jesus is actually the supreme embodiment of God's love . God doesn't hate you and he doesn't want to kill you . He loves you , despite your deepest flaws and your failures and your worst moments . God loves you . You were made for a purpose and when we fail to attain that purpose , when we miss the mark , god loves you . He loves you . And how do you know that ?

Speaker 1 39:16

John doesn't say , oh , you're gonna get the feeling You're gonna get like the fuzzies and the gooseies . No , he says look at the historical evidence . Are you kidding me ? He goes , look it . Look at the historical evidence and the life and the death and the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth , and you will discover God loves you . That is why Jesus had to die . It covered the death that humans owe God for contributing to all the evil and the death in this world .

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But there's actually more to the story . The New Testament makes this powerful claim that Jesus's death is not final , that he rose from the dead and that he is the sacrifice who broke the power of death and evil , which means that he actually lives on to offer his life to anyone who will accept it , that he is the perfect sacrifice which all the previous sacrifices were actually pointing to all along . And so , because of Jesus , the early Christians actually stopped participating in the ritual of animal sacrifice . It was no longer necessary , it was no longer needed , but they were given and we were given two new rituals . There are two sacred rituals that then Jesus taught his followers to perform To remind us something about our sin and to remind us something about God . The first is called baptism . It's a symbolism , a sacred symbolism , just as Jesus died , as he was buried , and so going into the water becomes this personal connection you now have with his death . But then , coming out of the water , so to speak , you come back to life with Jesus . He gives us this sacred ritual that joins the story of Jesus' death and resurrection with us , so that we would remember something about our sin and ourselves and we would remember something about God that he loves us . We're actually going to be doing that together , as a faith community in two weeks . Maybe for you it's going to be time to sign up to participate . We're celebrating on Resurrection Sunday and Easter Sunday , which is really every Sunday , but Easter specifically about the resurrection , the death and resurrection of Jesus we're going to see . Right now , we've got over 50 people that are going to be coming here going through this sacred ritual of dying and life in Jesus , which is awesome . It's going to be a party , it's going to be legit and it's also so beautiful . It's the thing that connects us . It connects us to the sacred ritual , and so maybe for some of you , you haven't quite understood that connectivity and that Jesus has asked us to actually do this in participation , to remind us about our sin but yet remind us about who he is and what all of that becomes . And so actually , on your connection card that you got in the little bundle says next steps . There's a spot there it says I'm going to be baptized and we want to get you signed up now because we want to be organized . We have a lot of people that are doing this . That's something that you can turn in today . You can go to the information desk .

Speaker 1 42:25

The second ritual is called the Lord's Supper , or the Eucharist , or communion . This is the second ritual , sacred ritual , in which he gave us . It's this reenactment of Jesus's last meal with his disciples , and he used bread and wine to portray his coming , death and sacrifice . And so now , followers of Jesus . They take this bread and this cup regularly to remember and participate in the power of Jesus's death and his life , and we're going to do that together . So these rituals , they remind us of God's love and they encourage us to live a life of love and grace . But they do more than that . They connect us to this new life source , the very power that brought Jesus back from the dead . And this is the same power that can deal with the evil in our own lives and transform us into the people who lead lives of love and peace .

Speaker 1 43:33

He's covered for you . He's covered for you , and , odds are , in your moments of deepest failures . That's a very hard thing to believe and that's why we eat the symbols of this story as a sacred ritual to remind ourselves . He's covered for you Reminds me of my miss to be completely and genuinely human , but that he loves me , he does not hate me , he is not angry . I get to eat the story that he loves me . We're going to sing In just a minute , we're going to pray , we're going to take bread gluten-free bread and cup together in just a few moments , and I would just urge you that , as you're participating in the story , you know what happened in your life the last seven

Sacred Ritual of Communion and Reflection

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days .

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You know your failures . Jesus certainly does , because he loves you . He died for you . He died for you because he loves you . So I'm going to pray and when I'm done praying , I'll invite you to stand and partake . There's tables around this room and you can go individually or collectively , and you're going to grab two cups together the bread and the juice . Just commune with them .

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Confess , participate in the sacred ritual , which is a reminder to us of who he is , what he has done for the repair and the covering of our failures over and over and over again .

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And if you're new with us and you're like I've never done this , I don't know what to do , you're welcome to connect to that . You're also just welcome to sit there and reflect and ask these questions why did Jesus have to die , and am I willing actually to allow him to die ? And it is an atoning sacrifice for me to be reconciled with God , the Creator . Let's pray . Father , thank you for these sacred rituals that we continually get to participate in through baptism and connecting with your death and resurrection . That brings new life into us every single day . Thank you for making a new creation in us and thank you that we get to eat the story , that we get to participate and understand who you are and your love and your care , your perfection . May we confess and get right before you as we come to the table to commune with you and see you for all you are in your grace and your mercy and your love . I'm so thankful for that . In your name we pray Amen .