Shalom Aleichem...
Reflections is a weekly Christian Teaching Ministry. Each week we will talk about the Bible and lessons we can put to use in our daily life. We will try to, on a weekly basis, provide to you stories, thoughts, and just easy ways to live your life on a straight path.
THIS WEEK'S TEACHING....March 29, 2021, Palm Sunday Message
We look this week, Palm Sunday, at an unusual, but vitally important, subject to talk about....
Three Crosses stood at Calvary.
Today I want to talk to you about the cross of Jesus. And not just the cross of Jesus alone, but about the two other crosses and the two others that were crucified with Jesus.
On either side of the Cross of Redemption was the Cross of Rejection and the Cross of Reception. What side of the Cross of Redemption are you on?Today is Palm Sunday and we’re all under the order of our Governor to stay home and keep our distance from one another. That is why we are putting this service online so you can still worship with your church even though we are physically separated. I hope you all are still trying to stay connected with one another even though we are separated. Please be sure to touch each other in ways of the Lord and do not forget our brothers and sisters whom we do not see on a daily basis.
Some pastors are worried that people will get use to being away from church. I do not worry about that. I believe that once we can go back to meeting in each other’s presence, God’s people will be so hungry for fellowship in each other’s physical presence, we will see numbers here at Rosemont that we have not seen in a long time. But while we are apart, I pray that you will take this time and draw closer to the Lord and closer to your family.
The cross has long been a symbol of Christianity. Today we see it in the various images of the church, the marking of the cross on various books and implements we use in Christian worship. We see it in make-up of our jewelry. It has become quite the object of beauty to us over the years. It has not always been that way. The symbol of the cross has only been use to represent Christianity only after the fourth century, when the last of those who had seen the horrors of a real crucifixion had died off.
The cross to many in the early church was a horrible instrument of a quite torturous death. To witness one dying a cross (which was done very publicly) was terrible experience, leaving one scarred for life, never wanting to be reminded of what they had witnessed.
But here we are, approximately 2,000 years later, remembering what happened that fateful day, on a little hill, just outside the gates of Jerusalem, called Calvary. That day there were three crosses. Jesus was hung on the middle cross, the cross of Redemption. On one side was the cross of Rejection and other side was the cross of Reception. The criminal who died on one side went to eternal torment in Hell, the criminal on the other side went to paradise with Jesus. The question we are looking to answer today is: “What side of the cross are you on?”
On December 6, 1829 two men, George Wilson and James Porter, robbed a United States mail carrier in Pennsylvania. Both men were subsequently captured and tried. On May 1, 1830 both men were found guilty of six indictments which included robbery of the mail "and putting the life of the driver in jeopardy." On May 27th both George Wilson and James Porter received their sentences: Execution by hanging. The sentences were to be carried out on July 2nd, 1830.
James Porter was executed on schedule. George Wilson was not. Shortly before the set date, a number of Wilson’s influential friends pleaded for mercy to the President of the United States, Andrew Jackson, on behalf of their friend. President Jackson issued a formal pardon. The charges resulting in the death sentence were completely dropped. Wilson would have to serve only a prison term of twenty years for his other crimes.
Incredibly George Wilson Refused The Pardon!
There were those who wished to force the pardon on George Wilson. The case reached the Supreme Court. Chief Justice John Marshall wrote the following in the decision:
"A pardon is a deed, to the validity of which delivery is essential; and delivery is not completed without acceptance. It may then be rejected by the person to whom it is tendered; and if it be rejected, we have discovered no power in a court to force it on him.”
In other words, George Wilson committed a crime. He was tried and found guilty. He was sentenced to be executed. A presidential decree granted him a full pardon. But George Wilson chose rather to refuse that pardon. The courts concluded that the pardon could not be forced upon him. George Wilson Chose to Die!
Now that you have heard George Wilson’s amazing story, you are probably saying: "How could anyone refuse a pardon for the death sentence? The man was a fool!" What would you say if someone told you that many were refusing a pardon? A pardon that would result in spending eternity in the presence of God rather than eternal separation from God in Hell.
That fateful day, around two thousand years ago, there were three Crosses erected on a little hill called Calvary. Calvary is the Latin name for the Greek Kranion which means skull. It’s the Greek word that we get our medical term cranium from. The Aramaic word was Golgotha.
There were also two others, criminals, led with Him to be put to death. 33 And when they had come to the place called Calvary, there they crucified Him, and the criminals, one on the right hand and the other on the left. Luke 23:32–33 (NKJV)
Isn’t interesting that some time earlier the Disciples were arguing who would get to be on Jesus’ left hand and on His right hand. Yet that place was given to two criminals. This fulfill prophecy from Isaiah:
Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great, And He shall divide the spoil with the strong, Because He poured out His soul unto death, And He was numbered with the transgressors, And He bore the sin of many, And made intercession for the transgressors. Isaiah 53:12 (NKJV)
This was staged deliberately to further humiliate Jesus, a criminal among criminals. These criminals were called robbers in Matthew’s account. A robber in the Greek meant more than a thief who would brake in under the cover of darkness hoping to take without being seen; Conversely, robbers use used violence to rob openly. Jesus was listed among violent criminals. Yet the prophecy from Isaiah said more: "And made intercession for the transgressors." Even though Jesus was hanging on the cross in agony, it was in His nature to forgive. I have a hard time understanding that.
Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.” Luke 23:34a (NKJV)
Not only does Jesus intercedes and ask for forgiveness for those who are crucifying Him, but we see that He gives a pardon to one of the criminals hanging with Him.
This is where I want to examine the big picture. Three Crosses, three very different situations. There was:
1. The Cross of Rejection
2. The Cross of Reception
3. The Cross of Redemption
Let’s consider them in order.
1. The Cross of Rejection. Here is a man condemned to die and was in the process of execution. He was defiant to end.
Then one of the criminals who were hanged blasphemed Him, saying, “If You are the Christ, save Yourself and us.” Luke 23:39 (NKJV)
He was hurting and knew death of imminent. He was neither sorry nor repentant for his sins. He was completely self-absorbed in his own issues. He was repeating just what Jesus’ accusers were saying; “If You are who You say You are, then save yourself and us too.” Yet this is precisely what Jesus was doing.
Yet this criminal completely and with full knowledge of who Jesus said He was, rejected him and identified himself with the very people who were putting him to death. This is what the world is doing every day. As the world is going through the motions of killing themselves and others, they are systematically rejection the very One who can save them all.
The other Gospels record that both criminals were saying the same things, along with the chief priests, scribes and elders. But Jesus never answered them or acknowledge their blasphemies.
At some point, despite the pain, the humiliation, and all the verbal abuse, one of the criminals began to see how Jesus maintained His dignity, refused to lower Himself to answer the accusations. He begins to realized, perhaps for the first time in his miserable, sin filled life, that he stood rightly condemned. There was no hope of salvation, save Jesus.
This criminal was on the:
2. The Cross of Reception. This criminal expresses remorse for his sins and confesses them. And he pleads with Jesus.
But the other, answering, rebuked him, saying, “Do you not even fear God, seeing you are under the same condemnation? 41 And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds; but this Man has done nothing wrong.” Luke 23:40–41 (NKJV)
This criminal has a transformation of his heart, rather than blaspheme Jesus, he turns and rebukes his partner in crime. There is the recognition that God was to be feared. Condemnation under God is something to be feared. We have a world that would rather thumb their noses at God rather than fear him. Why is that?
And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20 For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. John 3:19–20 (NKJV)
The light had shined on this man. His evil deeds where exposed and he had come into conviction. He rebukes his friend and defends Jesus. Then in a show of faith, showing faith in the King that was dying, ignoring the influence of his friend and the ridicule of the crowd and now, hanging on the cross, in what might literally be his last breath, this criminal now ask Jesus:
Then he said to Jesus, “Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom.” Luke 23:42 (NKJV)
This is the prayer of Salvation, crying out to Jesus to save. Jesus either saves or there is no salvation. There is no plan B.
This criminal sees that Jesus’ kingdom is not yet here in this world. It’s coming, but not here yet. Jesus said as much to Pilate:
Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now My kingdom is not from here.” John 18:36 (NKJV)
The fact of the matter is Jesus is returning and His kingdom will be established on the earth. What faith this man shows. He realizes that as Jesus goes to his Kingdom, that he will return as King. And the criminal knows that he must now call on Jesus to be saved.
For “whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved.” Romans 10:13 (NKJV)
No walking the aisle, no prayer with the pastor, it is just him and Jesus. That is all salvation has ever been. Nothing more and nothing less.
Notice this man was never baptized or participated in the Lord’s Supper. These things show that salvation has taken place. But these sacraments of the church do not bring salvation. It is all about Jesus! It has always been only about Jesus. And now this brings us to the third Cross.
3. The Cross of Redemption. The cross on which Jesus died. When the chief Priest, Scribes and Elders heckled Jesus with “Why don’t you save yourself,” It is precisely because Jesus did not save Himself that the repentant criminal was saved.
And Jesus said to him, “Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.” Luke 23:43 (NKJV)
Now Jesus, who was shown no mercy and is now showing mercy to the criminal being crucified next to Him. It was providential that Jesus was crucified between the two criminals, for this gave both of them equal access to the Savior, both had equal access to the pardon that was freely given. Both could read Pilate’s superscription, “THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS,” (Luke 23:38b) and both could watch Jesus as He graciously gave His life for the sins of the world.
The one criminal imitated the mockery of the religious leaders and asked Jesus to rescue him from the cross, but the other thief had different ideas. He may have reasoned, “If this Man is indeed the Christ, and if He has a kingdom, and if He has saved others, then He can meet my greatest need which is salvation from sin. I am not ready to die in sin!”.
From very side of Jesus Christ, one person accepts the full pardon for sins that was available and goes and spends eternity with Him. The other rejects the pardon and spends all eternity apart from Jesus in eternal torment in hell. What side of the cross are you on?
DID YOU EVER WONDER???
From: God
To: All His ChildrenEffective Immediately:
Please be aware that there are changes you need to make in your life. These changes need to be completed in order that I may fulfill my promises to you to grant you peace, joy and happiness in this life. I apologize for any inconvenience, but after all that I am doing, this seems very little to ask of you. I know, I already gave you 10 Commandments. Keep them, but follow these guidelines as well.
1. QUIT WORRYING
Life has dealt you a blow and all you do is sit and worry. Have you forgotten that I am here to take all your burdens and carry them for you? Or do you just enjoy fretting over every little thing that comes your way?
2. PUT IT ON THE LIST
Something needs done or taken care of. Put it on the list. No, not YOUR list. Put it on MY to-do-list. Let ME be the one to take care of the problem. I can't help you until you turn it over to me. And, although my to-do-list is long, I am, after all, God. I can take care of anything you put into my hands. In fact, if the truth were ever really known, I take care of a lot of things for you that you never even realize.
3. TRUST ME
Once you've given your burdens to me, quit trying to take them back. Trust in me. Have the faith that I will take care of all your needs, your problems and your trials. Problems with the kids? Put them on my list. Problem with finances? Put it on my list. Problems with your emotional roller coaster? For my sake, put it on my list. I want to help you. All you have to do is ask.
4. LEAVE IT ALONE
Don't wake up one morning and say, "Well, I'm feeling much stronger now, I think I can handle it from here." Why do you think you are feeling stronger now? It's simple. You gave me your burdens, and I'm taking care of them. I also renew your strength and cover you in my peace. Don't you know that if I give you these problems back, you will be right back where you started? Leave them with me and forget about them. Just let me do my job.
5. TALK TO ME
I want you to forget a lot of things. Forget what was making you crazy. Forget the worry and the fretting because you know I'm in control. But there's one thing I want you to never forget. Please don't forget to talk to me - OFTEN! I love you. I want to hear your voice. I want you to include me in the things going on in your life. I want to hear you talk about your friends and family. Prayer is simply you having a conversation with me. I want to be your dearest friend.
6. HAVE FAITH
I see a lot of things from up here that you can't see from where you are. Have faith in me that I know what I'm doing. Trust me, you wouldn't want the view from my eyes. I will continue to care for you, watch over you, and meet your needs. You only have to trust me. Although I have a much bigger task than you, it seems as if you have so much trouble just doing your simple part. How hard can trust be?
7. SHARE
You were taught to share when you were only two years old. When did you forget? That rule still applies. Share with those who are less fortunate than you. Share your joy with those who need encouragement. Share your laughter with those who haven't heard any in such a long time. Share your tears with those who are mourning. Share your faith with those who have none.
8. BE PATIENT
I managed to fix it so in just one lifetime you could have so many diverse experiences. You grow from a child to an adult, have children, change jobs many times, learn many trades, travel to so many places, meet thousands of people, and experience so much. How can you be so impatient then when it takes me a little longer than you expect to handle something on my to-do-list? Trust in my timing, for my timing is perfect. Just because I created the entire universe in only six days, everyone thinks I should always rush, rush, rush.
9. BE KIND
Be kind to others, for I love them just as much as I love you. They may not dress like you, or talk like you, or live the same way you do, but I still love you all. Please try to get along, for my sake. I created each of you different in some way. It would be too boring if you were all identical. Please know I love each of your differences.
10. LOVE YOURSELF
As much as I love you, how can you not love yourself? You were created by me to be loved, and to love in return. I am a God of Love. Love me. Love your neighbors. But also love yourself. It makes my heart ache when I see you so angry with yourself when things go wrong. You are very precious to me. Don't ever forget that!
With all my heart, I love you,
GOD
BOOKS OF THE BIBLE...A TEACHING
We are going to look at Jesus and just Who He is....in His humanity....
HE WORD BECAME FLESH
John 1:14
"So the Word of God became a person, and took up his abode in our being, full of grace and truth; and we looked with our own eyes upon his glory, glory like the glory which an only son receives from a father."
Here we come to the sentence for the sake of which John wrote his gospel. He has thought and talked about the word of God, that powerful, creative, dynamic word which was the agent of creation, that guiding, directing, controlling word which puts order into the universe and intelligence into human beings. These were ideas which were known and familiar to both Jews and Greeks. Now he says the most startling and incredible thing that he could have said. He says quite simply: ‘This word which created the world, this reason which controls the order of the world, has become a person, and with our own eyes we saw him.’
The word that John uses for seeing this word is theasthai; it is used in the New Testament more than twenty times and is always used of actual physical sight. This is no spiritual vision seen with the eye of the soul or of the mind. John declares that the word actually came to earth in the form of a man and was seen by human eyes. He says: ‘If you want to see what this creating word, this controlling reason, is like, look at Jesus of Nazareth.’
This is where John parted with all thought which had gone before him. This was the entirely new thing which John brought to the Greek world for which he was writing. Augustine afterwards said that in his pre-Christian days he had read and studied the great pagan philosophers and had read many things, but he had never read that the word became flesh.
To a Greek, this was the impossible thing. The one thing that no Greek would ever have dreamed of was that God could take a body. To a Greek, the body was an evil, a prison house in which the soul was shackled, a tomb in which the spirit was confined. Plutarch, the wise old Greek, did not even believe that God could control the happenings of this world directly; he had to do it by deputies and intermediaries, for, as Plutarch saw it, it was nothing less than blasphemy to involve God in the affairs of the world. Philo could never have said it. He said: ‘The life of God has not descended to us; nor has it come as far as the necessities of the body.’ The great Roman Stoic emperor, Marcus Aurelius, despised the body in comparison with the spirit. ‘Therefore despise the flesh—blood and bones and a network, a twisted skein of nerves and veins and arteries … The composition of the whole body is under corruption.’
Here was the shatteringly new thing—that God could and would become a human person, that God could enter into this life that we live, that eternity could appear in time, that somehow the Creator could appear in creation in such a way that he could actually be seen.
So staggeringly new was this conception of God in a human form that it is not surprising that even in the Church there were some who could not believe it. What John says is that the word became sarx. Now sarx is the very word Paul uses over and over again to describe what he called the flesh, human nature in all its weakness and in all its liability to sin. The very thought of taking this word and applying it to God was something that their minds staggered at. So there arose in the Church a body of people called Docetists.
Dokein is the Greek word for to seem to be. These people held that Jesus in fact was only a phantom; that his human body was not a real body; that he could not really feel hunger and weariness, sorrow and pain; that he was in fact a disembodied spirit in the apparent form of a man. John dealt with these people much more directly in his First Letter. ‘By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit which confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. And this is the spirit of the antichrist’ (1 John 4:2–3). It is true that this heresy was born of a kind of mistaken reverence which recoiled from saying that Jesus was really, fully and truly human. To John, it contradicted the whole Christian gospel.
It may well be that we are often so eager to conserve the fact that Jesus was fully God that we tend to forget the fact that he was fully human. The word became flesh—here, perhaps as nowhere else in the New Testament, we have the full humanity of Jesus gloriously proclaimed. In Jesus we see the creating word of God, the controlling reason of God, taking human nature upon himself. In Jesus we see God living life as he would have lived it if he had been a man. Supposing we said nothing else about Jesus, we could still say that he shows us how God would live this life that we have to live.
HAVE A SAFE AND BLESSED WEEK:)
Ho'omaikaʻi ka Pua iā kākou
We are going to look at Jesus and just Who He is....in His humanity....
HE WORD BECAME FLESH
John 1:14
"So the Word of God became a person, and took up his abode in our being, full of grace and truth; and we looked with our own eyes upon his glory, glory like the glory which an only son receives from a father."
Here we come to the sentence for the sake of which John wrote his gospel. He has thought and talked about the word of God, that powerful, creative, dynamic word which was the agent of creation, that guiding, directing, controlling word which puts order into the universe and intelligence into human beings. These were ideas which were known and familiar to both Jews and Greeks. Now he says the most startling and incredible thing that he could have said. He says quite simply: ‘This word which created the world, this reason which controls the order of the world, has become a person, and with our own eyes we saw him.’
The word that John uses for seeing this word is theasthai; it is used in the New Testament more than twenty times and is always used of actual physical sight. This is no spiritual vision seen with the eye of the soul or of the mind. John declares that the word actually came to earth in the form of a man and was seen by human eyes. He says: ‘If you want to see what this creating word, this controlling reason, is like, look at Jesus of Nazareth.’
This is where John parted with all thought which had gone before him. This was the entirely new thing which John brought to the Greek world for which he was writing. Augustine afterwards said that in his pre-Christian days he had read and studied the great pagan philosophers and had read many things, but he had never read that the word became flesh.
To a Greek, this was the impossible thing. The one thing that no Greek would ever have dreamed of was that God could take a body. To a Greek, the body was an evil, a prison house in which the soul was shackled, a tomb in which the spirit was confined. Plutarch, the wise old Greek, did not even believe that God could control the happenings of this world directly; he had to do it by deputies and intermediaries, for, as Plutarch saw it, it was nothing less than blasphemy to involve God in the affairs of the world. Philo could never have said it. He said: ‘The life of God has not descended to us; nor has it come as far as the necessities of the body.’ The great Roman Stoic emperor, Marcus Aurelius, despised the body in comparison with the spirit. ‘Therefore despise the flesh—blood and bones and a network, a twisted skein of nerves and veins and arteries … The composition of the whole body is under corruption.’
Here was the shatteringly new thing—that God could and would become a human person, that God could enter into this life that we live, that eternity could appear in time, that somehow the Creator could appear in creation in such a way that he could actually be seen.
So staggeringly new was this conception of God in a human form that it is not surprising that even in the Church there were some who could not believe it. What John says is that the word became sarx. Now sarx is the very word Paul uses over and over again to describe what he called the flesh, human nature in all its weakness and in all its liability to sin. The very thought of taking this word and applying it to God was something that their minds staggered at. So there arose in the Church a body of people called Docetists.
Dokein is the Greek word for to seem to be. These people held that Jesus in fact was only a phantom; that his human body was not a real body; that he could not really feel hunger and weariness, sorrow and pain; that he was in fact a disembodied spirit in the apparent form of a man. John dealt with these people much more directly in his First Letter. ‘By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit which confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. And this is the spirit of the antichrist’ (1 John 4:2–3). It is true that this heresy was born of a kind of mistaken reverence which recoiled from saying that Jesus was really, fully and truly human. To John, it contradicted the whole Christian gospel.
It may well be that we are often so eager to conserve the fact that Jesus was fully God that we tend to forget the fact that he was fully human. The word became flesh—here, perhaps as nowhere else in the New Testament, we have the full humanity of Jesus gloriously proclaimed. In Jesus we see the creating word of God, the controlling reason of God, taking human nature upon himself. In Jesus we see God living life as he would have lived it if he had been a man. Supposing we said nothing else about Jesus, we could still say that he shows us how God would live this life that we have to live.
HAVE A SAFE AND BLESSED WEEK:)
Ho'omaikaʻi ka Pua iā kākou