"AN ASTOUNDING
EVENT!"
Written and
preached by David P. Nolte
JOHN 3:16-18
The cross of Jesus Christ is one of the greatest enigmas of all time.
The how of it is pretty clear:
Jesus was nailed to a Roman Cross on a hill called Calvary. The what
and why of it are less obvious
until you dig into the Bible. Why the cross? And what good did it do
for Jesus to die? It
demonstrates that God doesn't take sin lightly and demands death as
payment for it. It manifests the
length to which God would go to save us in that God was willing to give
His Son to die on behalf of,
and as a substitute for, each of us. It brings the forgiveness of sin
to all who put their faith in Jesus
Christ and acknowledge Him as Lord. The cross is the meeting point of
absolute, unbending Divine
Justice and absolute, unending Divine mercy and grace. Jesus' death
satisfied both God's justice in
condemning sin, and His mercy and grace in forgiving it. The cross was
truly an astounding event. Let me tell you a story I heard recently to
look at the cross as perhaps God viewed it. A guest
speaker told a church congregation about a father, son and the son's
friend who went fishing off the
Pacific coast. They were laughing and joking and having a good time
when the storm clouds that had
been gathering cut loose. The wind began to blow, the rain fell, and
the waves began to swell. The
small boat was tossed like a cork, and all three were thrown into the
ocean. The father grabbed onto
a rope and then he had to make the most excruciating decision of his
life: to which boy he would
throw the other end of the life line! He only had seconds to make the
decision. The agony of his
decision makes me wonder if God faced such a dilemma? Just think with
me about that as we
consider:
- GOD'S DIFFICULT
CHOICE
- I don't want to attribute a situation to God that may not have
happened. This is
purely speculation. But it could have happened. Can you see God looking
at the
situation of the world and thinking, "My holiness and justice won't
allow Me to
merely dismiss sin off hand. But My grace and mercy won't let Me just
allow the
guilty to perish! I loathe sin but I take no delight in the death of
the sinner."
- So, not wanting any to perish, and willing that all would be
saved, God had to make
a choice; a difficult choice; a choice that would fulfill both demands.
Would He make
the one decision that would both satisfy His justice and legal demand
for death and
fulfill His longing to save the condemned? Or would He spare His Son
and condemn
the world?
- Of course, we know the answer to that one. But His decision
meant His Son would
suffer and die in our stead, and we would be given forgiveness and
freedom. The
Bible says,
- "For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, so
that everyone
who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. God did not
send His
Son into the world to condemn it, but to save it." John 3:16-17 (NLT).
- "All praise to him who loves us and has freed us from our
sins by shedding his
blood for us." Revelation
1:5 (NLT).
- In light of the choice God made to give His Son, and in light
of the choice Jesus made
to die for us, we need to make some choices, too.
- What will you do with Jesus? You only have two options:
reject or accept
Him. There is no neutrality here.
- What will you do with sin? You have only two options: rebel
and continue
in it or repent and forsake it.
- What will you do with the rest of your life? You have only
two options: live
it your own way, or live it for Jesus who gave it in the first place.
The father knew that his son was a Christian and he also knew that
his son's friend was not. He made
his decision and as he called out, "I love you, son!" he threw out the
life line to his son's friend. By
the time the father had pulled that boy back to the capsized boat, his
son had disappeared beneath the
raging swells into the black of night. His body was never recovered.
You can surely sense the
father's devastating sorrow. But can you imagine that God, too, must
have felt devastating sorrow
as He chose to let His Son die for those who not only didn't deserve
Him but didn't want Him,
either? Think about:
- GOD'S DEEP
SORROW:
- The great, tender heart of God broke as He witnessed His Son
being rejected,
mocked, tormented, tried, flogged, and nailed to the cross. The sorrow
God
experienced was compounded by the knowledge that all of all the sin of
all the world
of all times of all places was being laid upon Jesus.
- Jesus was no stranger to sorrow
- Isaiah mentions the sorrow Jesus experienced and which the
Father shared,
"He was despised and rejected - a man of sorrows, acquainted with
bitterest
grief. We turned our backs on Him and looked the other way when He went
by. He was despised, and we did not care." Isaiah 53:3 (NLT).
- In the garden of Gethsemane Jesus said to His disciples,
"them, "My soul is
crushed with grief to the point of death. Stay here and watch with me."
Matthew 26:38
(NLT). Do you think the Father didn't share that sorrow?
- Sorrow for the sins of the world; sorrow for the fate of the
lost; sorrow for the grief
Jesus experienced. Think about God's deep sorrow as the drama of
Calvary, the
fulfillment of the passion, unfolded. We might catch a glimpse of what
the Father
experienced when we think about David, whose son Absalom had been
killed by Joab:
"O my son Absalom! My son, my son Absalom! If only I could have died
instead of
you! O Absalom, my son, my son." 2 Samuel 18:33 (NLT).
If an earthly father can
feel so deeply, how can a Heavenly Father fail to do so?
- The sin that brought God sorrow, should bring sorrow to us,
too. "For God can use
sorrow in our lives to help us turn away from sin and seek salvation.
We will never
regret that kind of sorrow." 2 Corinthians 7:10 (NLT).
So, let's turn from those
things which grieve His heart, "And do not bring sorrow to God's Holy
Spirit by the
way you live." Ephesians
4:30 NLT).
>Why would a father suffer such sorrow by letting his own son
die, while choosing to help his son's
friend live? The father knew his son would step into eternity with
Jesus and he could not bear the
thought of his son's friend stepping into an eternity without Jesus so
he sacrificed his son to save the
son's friend. God gave His Son, the sinless, to save us, the sinful.
That earthly father didn't owe it
to the boy to save him, but he did it; allowing his own son to die, he
showed grace and mercy to his
son's friend. God went him one better: He didn't owe it to us to save
us but He gave His Son for
those who were His enemies. So let's consider:
- GOD'S DIVINE
GRACE:
- Remember Paul's words? "But God showed His great love
for us by sending Christ
to die for us while we were still sinners. And since we have been made
right in God's
sight by the blood of Christ, He will certainly save us from God's
judgment. For since
we were restored to friendship with God by the death of His Son while
we were still
His enemies, we will certainly be delivered from eternal punishment by
His life." Romans
5:9-10 (NLT).
- Grace is Divine Charity; it is undeserved love; it is God's
Riches At Christ's Expense;
it is favor extended to the unworthy; Grace is the very character and
heart of God; it
is God's "Yes! I love you!" even while we couldn't care less.
- But we only experience that grace as we put faith in Jesus
Christ. Paul wrote of the
correlation of grace and faith saying, "For it is by grace you have
been saved, through
faith - and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by
works, so that no
one can boast." Ephesians
2:8-9 (NIV).
Grace offers the lifeline; faith grasps it.
- The grace of God speaks to us saying, "Don't be afraid. I am
with you. Nothing can
ever separate us. It was for you I sent My Son. I love you. But, like
any other gift,
the gift of grace can be yours only if you'll receive it by faith."
The story
of the father and the son has a poignant ending. The man telling the
story said, to those
who could not believe what he told them, "I know that the story is
true! You see - I was that father
and your pastor is my son's friend." What a great, unfathomable love
God has for us that He should
do for us as that father did for his son's friend. Our Heavenly Father
sacrificed His only begotten Son
that we could be saved. You don't have to understand how He saves us
through Christ's blood, God
understands it so just put faith in Jesus and He will save you. Even
now He is ready and able to
rescue you. We are either sinking deep in sin or are lifted by His
love. It all depends upon what we
do with Jesus. He calls to you to take hold of the life line He is
throwing out to you in this service. What is your response to this
grace? Have you taken, or will you take, the lifeline of grace and
mercy
He extends? Will you step out today to identify yourself as a follower
of Jesus? If you haven't got
a church home in Klamath Falls, I invite you to make this your center
of worship and service. God
didn't throw you the lifeline so you can sit in the boat. He wants you
throwing that line to others
who are still sinking in sin. Today is the day of decision; tomorrow
may be too late. You have a
choice right now; tomorrow the choice may be gone. As we sing our
invitation song, grab the lifeline
by making Jesus Christ total and unconditional Lord of all your life.
Story of man and son from various
internet sources