Sermons
Jesus, The Same Today
Sun, Jun 25, 2017
Teacher: Tom Blackford Series: Sunday Sermons - 2017 Scripture: Hebrews 13:8
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Jesus, the Same Today
Hebrews 13:8
INTRO:
Good morning.
We’re continuing in our mini sermon series on Hebrews 13:8 where the Hebrew writer tells us that “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”
Last week we looked at how Jesus is the same yesterday.
We talked about John 1:1-3 and Genesis 1 to show that Jesus was the Word before He became Jesus in the flesh.
We looked at how, as the Word, He existed before creation existed and how He spoke creation into existence as the Word.
Finally, we looked at how He was Deity and is Deity and will be Deity forever more.
Next week we’ll look at how Jesus is the same forever, but today I want us to focus on how Jesus is the same today.
A personnel officer, checking over an applicant's papers, was amazed to note the figures 127 and 123 in the spaces reserved for "Age of father, if living," and "Age of mother, if living."
"You don’t mean to tell me”, said the personnel officer, “That your parents are that old?"
"Of course not," was the answer, "but they would be, if living.'
We probably all have times when we totally misunderstand instructions. The cause can be many things, pressure perhaps. -- But other times we go beyond misunderstanding instructions and ignore the instructions all-together. Sort of like the father on Christmas Eve putting together a bicycle or some other toy. After all, how complicated can a toy be? Why strain your eyes looking at the fine print on the instructions? After all you're just putting a toy together.
I think men are more prone to this than women. Men seem to have this habit of thinking we know how to build anything, so we don’t need to follow the instructions... Or ask directions for that matter. Have you ever put something together and had parts left over?
Perhaps that is why the instructions that Jesus gave are often misunderstood. People kind of read them and then think they have it all figured out - or perhaps they ignore them all together - or they are left with some parts of the Scripture which they can’t fit into their theology. Fortunately, as long as we have life we have another chance because Jesus is the same today and His message is the same today.
What is His message? It’s good news. The Gospel or ‘good news,’ is the message of forgiveness for sin through the atoning work of Jesus Christ.
Paul expressed what the Gospel is in 1 Corinthians 15:1-4 – “Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures,”
Often in sermons today, on television or radio, you will hear about how ‘Jesus died on the cross for you’ but very rarely will you hear someone say, ‘Jesus died on the cross because you are a sinner.’ That word ‘sinner’ which is ‘hamartolos’ in Greek, is seen as politically incorrect and offensive to some people these days.
Anyone who has violates God’s laws, or neglects the requirements of God’s law is a sinner, that’s what the word ‘sinner’ means. If you find that offensive well and good, because you don’t find it nearly as offensive as God does.
He hates sin and He hates it with a passion because He knows the true consequences of sin.
We read in; Isaiah 59:2 – “But your iniquities have separated you from your God; and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear.” God is Holy and we have to respect that. God hates sin because it opposes His very holy nature and separates us from Him. Jesus lived a perfect life and because of that perfect life, He was the only one who was qualified to be the perfect substitute for our sinful life on the cross. He went to the cross to pay the consequences of the debt that we owe to God for our sin.
Thankfully He rose again and His resurrection is the proof of the power of God.
Folks, Christianity, and our faith has its foundation on the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. It’s central to everything we believe as Christians.
There are other religions that do not believe in God's grace. They believe the only way you can please God is by your works. You have to be good enough to get into heaven. In doing that they limit God's power. To them God is only there to be appeased by what you do and He does not have an active role in the process. As Christians we believe that the creator of all things is more than a figurehead. We see the lessons taught in the scriptures and realize His power.
I. Paul explains in 1 Corinthians 15:2 – “By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.” [NIV] If Jesus didn’t die, if He wasn’t buried and if He didn’t rise from the grave, we may as well just go home, because there would be no point. There would be no point or purpose to this life and there would be no hope for an afterlife.
A. Folks, we need live like we believe Jesus died, was buried and rose again. We need to preach, teach and talk like we believe Jesus died, was buried and rose again. We need to act and behave and treat other people, like we believe Jesus died, was buried and rose again.
B. We need to do that because remember a lot of people don’t read the Bible. Do you know what they read? They read our lives. They will judge our Christianity on how we go about our daily life. As we have said before, we’re a walking, talking advertisement of the death, burial and resurrection of Christ.
II. Love. Not only is His message still the same today but Jesus is the same today. The way He taught us to love is still the same today. The Gospel is really a message of love. The Bible is from God to all of mankind telling us how much He loves us, and wants us to be with Him.
A. Jesus dealt with many aspects of human life but one topic He mentioned over and over again was love. His teaching showed mankind what love really was. We had been told in times past In Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18 that we should love God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our strength, and with our entire mind, and our neighbor as ourselves. Do we really appreciate what this means?
B. When Jesus taught about love He didn’t just focus on our love for our friends and family, oh no, He taught about a love that is more than that. He taught about a love that is much more challenging, a love that challenges the deepest fiber of our being.
C. Matthew 5:43-44 – “You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you” The kind of love Jesus is speaking about here is a kind of social love, it’s the Greek word, ‘agapao’ which means to love in the moral sense.
1. It’s the kind of love that asks us to love those who hate us. It’s the kind of love that demands we love those who are against us. It’s radical because it goes against everything we’ve been taught for years by society about love.
2. When you think about it, it’s the easiest thing in the world to hate someone, isn’t it? It’s the easiest thing in the world to want to try and get revenge for wrongs, to get even with those who hate us. Society makes this an easily accepted norm. Somebody wrongs you, take them to court.
D. The kind of love that Jesus talks about is a kind of love doesn’t hold grudges, it forgives. It doesn’t create bitterness; it brings us to our knees in prayer. That is the kind of love He wants us to have.
E. John 13:34-35 – “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” Notice first of all this is a New Commandment. That is important to understand. Notice also “By this all will know”. Isn’t that what we said a few minutes ago? People read our lives.
III. We might ask; “What is so new about this command of love?” What’s the difference in the Old Testament and the New Testament? What is new about this love is found in the phrase, ‘as I have loved you’. Jesus has demonstrated with His life as a man how this love is manifest.
A. It’s interesting that Jesus uses the Greek word we looked at earlier, ‘agapao’ which is used in the social and moral sense. However, when He says, ‘if you love one another’, He uses the Greek word, ‘agape’ which means the highest form of love, the love God has for us and the love we should have for God. Jesus now applies that word - to describe the love we should have - for each other.
B. You might say, it’s a sacrificial kind of love, the kind of love that Jesus speaks about in John 15. John 15:12-13 - “This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends.”
C. We are talking about the kind of love Paul talks about in Ephesians 5:25 – “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for it”. I wonder how many times in our lives we have demonstrated that kind of love?
D. Jesus is the same today because today He still expects us to love everyone as He loves everyone.
IV. Forgiveness. Jesus is the same today because He still offers forgiveness today. It is important not only that we try to reach His standard of love but also that we understand there are going to be times when we don’t reach His standard of love.
A. Really, that’s what the cross is all about. It not only shows us the consequences of sin but it shows the great love God has for mankind.
B. We will never understand the cross as something done for us, until we understand that the cross was something done by us. In other words, we need to realize that we are all sinners and have fallen short of God’s glory as Romans 3:23 tells us.
C. We can’t ask for forgiveness for something, if we don’t think we’ve done anything wrong, can we? Would you expect a person to say sorry for hitting someone, if they hadn’t done it? Would you expect a person to say sorry for stealing, if they hadn’t stolen anything?
D. I’m sure many of us have experienced a time in our life when someone thought we did something wrong but we hadn’t. A disheartening experience. We can’t ask for forgiveness if we don’t know or don’t believe we have done something wrong.
E. John says in 1 John 2:2 – “He (Jesus) is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.” [para] John the baptizer stood on the banks of the River Jordan and when he saw Jesus coming towards him and says in John 1:29 – “Look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”
1. Notice John uses the word ‘sin’ not ‘sins’, why? That’s because Jesus came to deal with the whole consequence of sin, sin as a whole.
2. When Jesus’ friend Lazarus died, the Bible says in John 11:35 – “Jesus wept”. Why’s He crying? It’s certainly not because Lazarus is dead, after all He’s going to bring him back to life. No! He’s crying because our Lord was about to call back to our world of temptation someone who had already completed life; and, in such a thing, there was an undeniable danger to the soul of Lazarus. Jesus saw the full consequence of sin.
F. You may think that your sins are bigger than my sins, so I don’t need as much forgiveness. Wrong! Have you ever lied to someone or accepted more change then was due? Have you ever told bad things about someone or murdered someone? You shouldn’t picture these in different categories. God doesn’t. A sin is a sin. If you’ve sinned you need forgiveness.
G. In the first part of the verse at 1 John 5:17 – we are told; “All wrongdoing is sin.” All of it. It doesn’t matter if we’ve committed what we think is a ‘small’ sin or if we’ve committed what we think is a ‘huge’ sin. If we have sinned we are a sinners, all of us are and all of us need forgiveness. You know God wouldn’t offer forgiveness if we didn’t need it. Ever think about it that way?
V. Sacrifice. Have you ever wondered why Jesus died at Passover time instead of some other time?
A. Hebrews 7:22-27 –“Jesus has become a surety of a better covenant. And there were many priests, because they were prevented by death from continuing. But He, because He continues forever, has an unchangeable priesthood. Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He ever lives to make intercession for them. For such a High Priest was fitting for us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and has become higher than the heavens; who does not need daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the people's, for this He did once for all when He offered up Himself. For the law appoints as high priests men who have weakness, but the word of the oath, which came after the law, appoints the Son who has been perfected forever.”
B. Unlike the other high priests, He does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for our sins once for all when he offered himself.
C. In Exodus 12 where God ‘passed over’ the first born in Egypt, that was a day that God would never repeat, it was a one-off event, done by God. The Day of Pentecost was a festival that was to be repeated every year to commemorate the event. Christ died on Passover because this too, was a one-off event, a once for all sacrifice that was never to be repeated again. Now we have the Lord’s supper which is the reminder of that event.
D. Hebrews 9:22 – “according to the law almost all things are purged with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no remission.” Jesus died because of us and for us, so that He could offer us a way to receive forgiveness.
VI. The price. That great price of our forgiveness was paid in a remarkable way when Jesus suffered and died in our place. That’s why we partake of the Lord’s Supper every week. We partake of the Lord’s Supper as a reminder. Jesus took the simple symbols of bread and wine and used them to represent His body and blood.
A. Matthew 26:26-28 – “… as they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed it and broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, "Take, eat; this is My body.'' Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, "Drink from it, all of you. "For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.” Blood needed to be shed for us so we could have our sins forgiven.
B. Notice that Jesus didn’t ask the Father to bless us as we partake of the bread and wine. It says here He “gave thanks”, He thanked God for providing the bread and wine.
C. We don’t partake of the Supper to receive the forgiveness of our sins, the purpose is not to ask for forgiveness of sins. We partake of the Supper because our sins have already been forgiven. It’s during the Supper, that we realize the great price that was paid for us to receive the forgiveness of our sins.
D. When we realize how much forgiveness we need, then just like Paul, we can whisper the words he said to his young friend Timothy in 1 Timothy 1:15 – “This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.”
E. When I read those words, ‘of whom I am chief’, I think of myself because I realize how much I need forgiveness.
VII. Forgiving others. Not only do we need forgiveness, we need to be willing to forgive others too. Over and over again the Bible not only reminds us of our need for forgiveness, but it reminds us of our need to forgive those who have sinned against us.
A. This again is a radical new practice; it’s a radical new way of thinking, a radical new way to teach.
B. Jesus says in Matthew 6:14-15 – “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” Jesus tells us that if we claim to be followers of Him, we must reflect His nature, God’s nature.
C. God’s nature includes the ability to forgive, then we too must forgive others. If we don’t, we can’t claim to belong to Christ. That is a hard command folks, but a command is a command and it’s straightforward and simple. If you don’t forgive them, then God won’t forgive you. Again this week I heard of a person who had a relative who passed away and the two of them had not spoken in years because one held a grudge, a belief that a wrong was done. Forgiveness is more than saying I forgive you but that is another lesson.
D. Remember also Jesus told us that we are to love and pray for our enemies, but why pray for them? Are we praying that those who hurt us will change? Well, yes, but it’s more than that. We’re also praying that our attitudes towards them will change. We might not be able to change their attitude towards us, but through prayer, we change our attitude towards them.
E. I certainly understand that forgiving people isn’t something that comes easy to us. Folks, do we really believe that it was easy for Jesus to say in Luke 23:34 – “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.”
F. When Jesus says, ‘forgive them’, He’s not just talking about the Roman soldiers who were carrying out the death sentence. He’s talking about all mankind since the garden. He’s talking about every sinner who has ever lived before the cross and every sinner who has lived and will live after the cross.
G. Do not say you can’t forgive someone, because if you follow the Man who was willing to forgive the world for the sins committed against Him, you will forgive. Or your heart is so hardened that His sacrifice for you is in vain.
H. Paul says to those in Ephesus and to us today in Ephesians 4:32 – “… be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ also forgave you.” How many times I have failed at this I can not count.
I. Jesus knows we need to forgive others because we need forgiveness so much ourselves. Jesus is the same today and He still offers that forgiveness.
CONCLUSION:
I wonder, do we believe the things I’ve said this morning? Do we really understand how much He loves us and wants us to love others the same way?
Do we see our need for forgiveness and the need to forgive others who wrong us?
Do you believe that Jesus died, was buried and rose again?
If you do, then what are you waiting for? What’re you waiting for? Let’s act like we believe it. Let’s get out there and act like we believe it.
If you are not a Christian, you simply have to do spiritually, what Jesus did physically.
Paul puts it so simply in Romans 6:3-8 – “… do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him,”
That’s straightforward, isn’t it?
In baptism, we’re simply doing spiritually what Christ did physically. In baptism, we die like He died, in baptism, we are buried like He was buried and in baptism, we are raised to a new life, like He was raised to a new life.
Peter said to those listening on the day of Pentecost that they could be forgiven for killing the Messiah, and he told them what they needed to do, to receive this forgiveness.
He said in Acts 2:38 - “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”
Jesus is the same today. We can receive forgiveness for our sins, and the gift of the Holy Spirit.
If you’re not a Christian this morning, let me leave you with the words of the apostle Paul to think about. 2 Corinthians 6:2 – “In an acceptable time I have heard you, and in the day of salvation I have helped you.'' Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”
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Reference Sermon
Mike Glover
Where and when we meet
Chardon, Ohio 44024