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Christ In Sacrifice
I am so pleased that you could join me for this lesson on the sacrifices Jesus made for us. This is the sixth message in this series about Jesus. I hope that you will read or listen to all of them.
There is much to learn from the eight messages in this series, Christ In Creation, Christ In Prophecy, Christ In Ministry-I, Christ In Ministry–II, Christ In Ministry–III, Christ In Sacrifice, Christ In History, and Christ In Revelation.
Jesus gave up more than we can understand to save us!
As Christians, we are all acquainted, to some degree, with the price Jesus paid for our sins. Most of us were taught the basics of Jesus dying on the cross at a place called Calvary. He offered Himself as a sin offering in our place. However, most of us have no idea of how great that suffering was, nor do we even think about the other things He suffered for us.
Today we will look at some ways He sacrificed for us. His life was not all He gave.
First, it is important to note that Jesus enjoyed all the splendor of God’s glory in Heaven with His Father. He was there with the Father and Holy Spirit when the heavens and the earth were created.
Jesus was there to breathe the breath of life into the creation He called man.
God, His Father, gave Him all authority over all things. Yet, He was willing to leave it all for you and me.
Jesus says 38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. John 6:38 NKJV
Think about it, He gave up His home and His position in Heaven for you and me.
His birth was a Sacrifice.
Jesus left Heaven to come here to do the will of the Father who sent Him.
Today it is often hard to get those who claim to be followers of Jesus even to leave their earthly homes to witness to the lost soul next door. Yet Jesus left all the glory of Heaven where the Angels of God recognized His position of authority.
The King of Glory left Heaven to be born in a manger in Bethlehem. Not only did He leave Heaven, but He became a baby that could not care for Himself. Jesus chose not to be born in an earthly palace or to a royal family.
Even being born in a royal palace would still have been an incredible sacrifice. However, Jesus went further, He chose a young girl in a small village in an occupied country to be His mother.
His birth was a sacrifice!
From the helplessness of a newborn baby into a young man, He was limited by a physical body just like us. It hurt when he stubbed His toe. He had to learn the same as all children. Jesus did not receive any special treatment when He went to synagogue school.
Jesus had to Sacrifice His time waiting for events to be fulfilled.
We can not imagine what it would be like for the King of Glory to depend on His earthly mother and father. To have to learn to put on His sandals, dress, and do His chores.
You can remember some of the things that happened to you as a child. Of course, some were good, and some were bad, but you know that growing up was, at times, hard.
Jesus chose to start His time on earth like one of us. He decided to experience all the things any other little boy would experience.
We don’t know at what point in Jesus’ life He knew He had been born to die. However, we realize He understood His unique relationship with God the Father early in life. Scripture tells us in Luke 2:40 NKJV, 40 And the Child grew and became strong in spirit, filled with wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him.
Jesus did not sit and wait for His time to come. Instead, as a young Jewish boy, He went to the synagogue and was taught the Scripture with the other boys His age. I am sure that He played games and was a regular boy growing in mind and body.
He had to wait for the appointed time, just as we wait to become adults and wait for God’s call to our ministry.
Waiting is a sacrifice.
We know that by age twelve He understood who He was.
In Luke 2:41-50, we are told about Jesus at twelve in the temple in Jerusalem. Many had traveled from Nazareth for the Passover Feast, and as they returned, Mary and Joseph found that Jesus was missing. So after looking among their relatives and not finding Him, they returned to Jerusalem.
If you are a parent, you can understand their worry. Once, I lost a child at Disney Land. She was there with us and then gone. She was only missing a few minutes, but we were apprehensive. Can you imagine the concern if you were missing a twelve-year-old for several days?
In Luke 2:46-47 NKJV, we read, 46 Now so it was that after three days they found Him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, both listening to them and asking them questions. 47 And all who heard Him were astonished at His understanding and answers.
His answer in Luke 2:49 NKJV shows that He understands who He is, 49 And He said to them, “Why did you seek Me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?”
Can you imagine what it would be like to raise the Son of God in the flesh? No, you can not, but you understand it would be confusing. First, he is a baby learning to walk, then a young boy running and playing like other boys. Now He is a twelve-year-old telling you that He is about His Father’s business.
Waiting was hard for Jesus as it is for us, but the Scripture tells us, Luke 2:51-52 NKJV, 51 Then He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was subject to them, but His mother kept all these things in her heart. 52 And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.
Even His teaching was a sacrifice.
Teaching God’s Word is very rewarding. I am thankful that people have usually responded very well to my teaching of His Word.
But what would it be like if they did not respond well? If they believed their way was right and they were unwilling to receive the truth? You have experienced those who reject the truth.
I grew up in a cult that believed everyone was going to hell, except us in the “true church.” It was hard to accept some Bible truths because of this background. Now I understand that all who receive Jesus as their personal Savior will be saved regardless of their denomination.
However, like the Pharisees, my mind was set, and I was not willing to look at God’s words with an open mind. It took years to see how wrong I was in combining Scriptures and building a false doctrine. Then, by the grace of God, I was able to change.
This mindset is what Jesus faced when He taught the Jewish leaders of the day. The Pharisees and Sadducees knew the Law. They applied the letter but not the Spirit of the Law. Because of this, Jesus’s teachings offended them.
He called them out. Jesus dared to tell them that they were hypocrites. They put upon everyone else the hard interpretations of the Law, but only kept the ones they chose.
It is a sacrifice to teach when religious leaders reject what you are saying and attack you.
It was a sacrifice to face Jewish opposition.
Starting early in His ministry, He faced Jewish opposition. However, His preaching of the spiritual meaning of the Law to the multitudes gained attention. One of our best examples of this teaching is what we call the Sermon on the Mount found in Matthew 5-7.
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus expanded the Law. He told them how much more there was in a Law, such as thou shall not kill. Therefore, they could be guilty of breaking the Law without physically killing.
The Pharisees and Sadducees built a religious structure around obedience to their interpretation of the Law. What Jesus said went against their teaching about physically keeping the many limits they attached to the Law.
We are told in Mark 8:11-12 NKJV, 11 Then the Pharisees came out and began to dispute with Him, seeking from Him a sign from heaven, testing Him. 12 But He sighed deeply in His spirit, and said, “Why does this generation seek a sign? Assuredly, I say to you, no sign shall be given to this generation.”
Note, that Jesus was not speaking against obeying the Law.
On the contrary, he lived under and in complete obedience to the Law. The Law, given through Moses, was not the problem. Man’s inability and unwillingness to live under it without breaking it was the problem.
The Scribes and Pharisees created another whole book, the Talmud which records the rabbinic debates on the Torah. It gave detailed instructions about how to keep the Law.
Jesus did not oppose Moses and the Prophets. He says in, Matt 5:17-18 NKJV, 17 “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. 18 For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the Law till all is fulfilled.
Jesus is the fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets.
God did not and will not change!
Jesus came to save us because of our inability to live perfectly under the Law. The Law showed us clearly what Sin was and presently is. God defined it. Therefore, the only definition that matters is God’s.
Paul points it out in, 1 Tim 1:8-10 NKJV, 8 But we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully, 9 knowing this: that the law is not made for a righteous person, but for the lawless and insubordinate, for the ungodly and for sinners, for the unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, 10 for fornicators, for sodomites, for kidnappers, for liars, for perjurers, and if there is any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine.
God’s Law will always define evil acts as evil even when society decides to call them good. It is like the farmer says, “If you call a skunk a rabbit, it still stinks.” Sin is the same; we can rename it, legalize it, and even give it some beautiful name, but it is still a sin.
Today we see men and women trying to relabel all types of sin. They are the opposite of the Pharisees. They want to label sin calling it, modern thinking, fairness, human rights, and many other ways to make sin sound like it is a good thing.
Jesus Sacrificed the use of His Authority!
Jesus could not use His authority when confronted by the religious leaders. Scripture had to be fulfilled that had Him coming as a Suffering Servant.
His first task was to teach the people about the coming kingdom, His Kingdom. The common man was willing to listen, but the synagogue leadership was not.
Jesus humbled Himself to their criticism to reach those willing to listen.
Matt 21:23 NKJV tells us, 23 Now when He came into the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people confronted Him as He was teaching, and said, “By what authority are You doing these things? And who gave You this authority?”
We cannot imagine what Jesus felt. Yet we know that He knew that this would happen. The Prophets had foretold how they would respond to Him, and He knew the Scriptures.
Submission was a Sacrifice.
Jesus knew His time was upon Him when He went to the Garden of Gethsemane with His disciples.
He went there to pray about the coming event. The fleshly side of Him did not want to suffer on a cross. His purpose for coming into the world was to die for us. Yet He had feelings just like we do. Jesus did not want to hurt. He knew everything that was to happen to Him and yet He submitted.
So he asks in Luke 22:42 NKJV, 42 “Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done.”
When Jesus finished praying, He knew they were coming to arrest Him.
He steps forth and asks them who they are looking for, and He says, I am He.
They bind Him and take him to the Sanhedrin so they can build a case against Him, They have gathered false witnesses, but can not get the false witnesses to agree on anything He has done wrong.
But we might note that they could not find what did not exist.
So finally, they try to question Him so they can find something to accuse Him of that is worthy of death. Jesus knows their hearts and that it is His time to die.
So when they ask Him in Luke 22:67-70 NKJ:
“If You are the Christ, tell us.”
But He said to them, “If I tell you, you will by no means believe. 68 And if I also ask you, you will by no means answer me or let Me go. 69 Hereafter the Son of Man will sit on the right hand of the power of God.”
70 Then they all said, “Are You then the Son of God?”
So He said to them, “You rightly say that I am.”
Their reaction was immediate. They accused Him of blasphemy against God, which was an offense worthy of death by Jewish law. However, in the Roman Empire, they could not minister capital punishment. They had to take Him to the Roman consulate so Rome could decide.
In conclusion, we have the final Sacrifice.
Most of us know the final Sacrifice. We celebrate it every Easter. Each of us gives a little thought to the events that led to our Salvation.
We are reminded that He was beaten and had a crown of thorns forced down on His head. Then came His crucifixion.
It was Rome’s cruelest form of death reserved for the worst offenders.
Yet it was this death that Jesus was born to suffer. He suffered it for you and for me to provide us our Salvation. If we believe that He is the Son of God and died for our sins and take Him as our Savior, we are saved!!
No longer will our destination be Hell but an Eternity living in Heaven with God.
Praise Him for His Sacrifice!!!!!
There is much to learn from the eight messages in this series, Christ In Creation, Christ In Prophecy, Christ In Ministry-I, Christ In Ministry–II, Christ In Ministry–III, Christ In Sacrifice, Christ In History, and Christ In Revelation.