04/01/2024
JESUS IS KING!
This past week, I have thought and pondered, read and listened to a lot of things regarding Holy Week when Jesus died and rose again. If you stop reading here, know that I believe in the resurrection of my Savior!
Jesus entered the city at the beginning of this story to the praises of the multitude. The same multitude that would later yell “crucify him!” I heard someone say they were sometimes bothered by the thought that they could have been in that crowd. I want all who read this to know…I was in that crowd! My life until salvation yelled “Crucify Him!”
The Last Supper, Jesus washed His disciples’ feet as an act of service, He sat down and talked with them and explained things to them they couldn’t understand, He ate with them and even gave them bread and wine as a symbol of his body and blood.
Then Jesus went to the Garden for prayer. Scripture says that as He prayed to His Father He asked that if it be God’s will that the cup be taken from Him as He sweat drops of blood. Jesus, the only one in human history to know the full extent of God’s wrath to sin sweat blood knowing what was coming.
I once heard a pastor ask “What are you saved from?
I replied “Saved from hell.”
He said “You’re close, but you are missing it!”
I was curious and he explained…You are saved from God. More specifically, you are saved from His wrath towards you and your sin. Because He is Holy and Just, He must have payment for breaking His law.
Then that pastor asked “How are we saved?”
I replied “Jesus died on a cross.”
He said “you are close, but you are missing it!”
I was sure I had that one right until he explained more. Thousands of men were crucified at the hands of Romans and none of them did anything for me. If Jesus wasn’t fully man and fully God, if he hadn’t lived a sin free life, keeping all of God’s laws…if not all of that, He couldn’t have been the sacrificial lamb on the cross. Also, we get wrapped around what happened to him at the hands of the Romans, but that is not what saves you. While on that cross, God poured out His wrath and in Isaiah, scripture reads that it pleased God to crush Him. Not that it made God happy, but that he was made to bear the full extent and measure of the wrath of God for all who would come to believe in Him. When he had taken the fullness of God’s wrath, Jesus said “It is finished!” And He meant that He had paid in full what we owed to God.
The Resurrection…Jesus is Risen and He is King!
Just as scripture said it would happen, Jesus lives and sits at the right hand of God! Death has no sting, and no grace can hold Him.
The beautiful thing about this is that it is available to all who read this as well. Scripture states that you too can be crucified with Christ, dead to your old self and resurrected with Christ a new creation if we believe that Christ is the Son of God, repent and turn from our sin and follow Christ daily.
Repent doesn’t mean to ask for forgiveness once, say you believe in Jesus and go live like the world. If you think you can live like the devil, you may have to spend eternity with him. I don’t want that for anyone. Give everything to Him and He will give you life. Not just now but for eternity!
If you have questions, please reach out. I may or may not know the answer to your question. If I can’t answer your question , I don’t mind redirecting you to someone I feel can help.
Thank you if you have made it this far, please feel free to share, we have all been called to share under The Great Commission!
